# Chirp mass and the energy of GWs

**URL:** <https://ask.igwn.org/t/chirp-mass-and-the-energy-of-gws/1153>\
**Category:** Science Questions\
**Created:** [December 10, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://ask.igwn.org/t/chirp-mass-and-the-energy-of-gws/1153 "2024-12-10T22:58:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Noor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c67d28/32.png) [@Noor](https://ask.igwn.org/u/Noor)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://ask.igwn.org/t/chirp-mass-and-the-energy-of-gws/1153/1 "2024-12-10T22:58:12Z")

</div>

Hello there,

Can anybody tell me how are the chirp mass and the energy of GW related to each other? Is it a linear relation? If there is a paper that has the equation\derivation of their relation, I would really appreciate it if someone could share it here.

Thank you in advance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jonah](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/ask.igwn.org/jonah/32/10_2.png) [@jonah](https://ask.igwn.org/u/jonah)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 4:48pm UTC](https://ask.igwn.org/t/chirp-mass-and-the-energy-of-gws/1153/2 "2024-12-17T16:48:26Z")

</div>

Thank you for your question! There is a helpful discussion of this in the paper “The basic physics of binary black hole merger GW150914” My advice is to start there.

> **[The basic physics of the binary black hole merger GW150914](https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.01940)**
>
> The first direct gravitational-wave detection was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory on September 14, 2015. The GW150914 signal was strong enough to be apparent, without using any waveform model, in the filtered...