在很多教科书中，引力波被描述为平直时空的微扰. 弱场近似下引力相互作用可以描述为类似麦克斯韦方程的形式，对应引力电和引力磁的概念.这里的弱引力场自然对应平直时空的微扰.由于引力波和引力电、引力磁都可对应于平直时空的微扰，我们很自然会联想引力波和引力电、引力磁的关系. 本文分析表明，引力电、引力磁对应引力源近场区的行为，但无法描述远场区的波动行为.也就是说，通常文献中的引力电、引力磁不能描述引力波行为.

 In many textbooks, gravitational waves are described as perturbations of flat spacetime. Under the weak field approximation, gravitational interactions can be described in a similar form to the Maxwell equation, corresponding to the concepts of gravitational electricity and gravitational magnetism. The weak gravitational field naturally corresponds to the perturbation of flat spacetime. Due to the fact that gravitational waves, gravitational electricity, and gravitational magnetism can be described as perturbations of flat spacetime, it is interesting to ask the relationship between gravitational waves, gravitational electricity, and gravitational magnetism. The analysis in this article indicates that gravitational electricity and gravitational magnetism correspond to the behavior of the near region of the gravitational source, but cannot describe the wave behavior in the far region. That is to say, the gravitational electricity and gravitational magnetism commonly used in literature cannot describe the behavior of gravitational waves.