This research shows that gravitational waves and gravitational inertial waves are linked to a special structure of the Riemann-Christoffel curvature tensor. Proceeding from this a classification of the waves is given, according to Petrov's classification of Einstein spaces and gravitational fields located therein. The world-lines deviation equation for two free particles (the Synge equation) is deduced and that for two force-interacting particles (the Synge-Weber equation) in the terms of chronometric invariants - physical observable quantities in the General Theory of Relativity. The main result drawn from the deduced equations is that in the field of a falling gravitational wave there are not only spatial deviations between the particles but also deviations in the time flow. Therefore an effect from a falling gravitational wave can manifest only if the particles located on the neighbouring world-lines (both geodesics and non-geodesics) are in motion at the initial moment of time: gravitational waves can act only on moving neighbouring particles. This effect is purely parametric, not of a resonance kind. Neither free-mass detectors nor solid-body detectors (the Weber pigs) used in current experiments can register gravitational waves, because the experimental statement (freezing the pigs etc.) forces the particles of which they consist to be at rest. In aiming to detect gravitational waves other devices should be employed, where neighbouring particles are in relative motion at high speeds. Such a device could, for instance, consist of two parallel laser beams.