I will review how gravitational waves are generated, how we detect them, and the data analysis, at the lowest-order, back-of-the-envelope level. Along the way, I'll talk about a few of my favorite facts about gravity and how it differs from other fields. I'll describe why compact binaries are the prime sources for gravitational waves, and which ones can be detected by current and future detectors. On the data analysis side, I'll talk about how to think of signal detection in a geometric way and give an example of detecting tidal excitation of neutron star modes.
Giada Caneva, Elia Bertoldo, Francesco Sciotti