quote:
Originally posted by John Anderton
quote:
Originally posted by Underlord
The only thing that can travel faster than light is space. In a black hole space is being sucked in faster than light travels, so light itself cannot escape. Very simple explination.
Underlord, thats not true. I could explain if anyone wants to know ...
When a star burns normally there are two forces acting upon it, its high gravitational force acting inward (high because ..... it holds the whole planetary system together dont they) and the force due to contunious nuclear fusion (which acts outward)
It is the magnitude at of these forces that determines the size of the star at any instant. It remains like this for say a few kazillon years 
Then eventually its low on fuel (hydrogen), it swells up for a few millenia (short time for starts pfft ) cause the outward force due to nuclear fusion decreases due to a lower combustion rate. Then it runs out of hydrogen and its screwed cause it still has the same gravitational force but the outward force is zero. Thus it shrinks but as it does, its mass it still constant but its volume tends to zero
Density = Mass / Volume
Thus it has infinite density and thus infinite gravitational force. Thus not even light can excape it 
I know how a black hole is formed. My explination wasn't meant to be inconceivably complex. Also it isn't possible for something to have "infinite" density. This would break the laws of quantum mechanics. The volume of the object is almost negligible, but it is there.
quote:
Since light has no mass how can it be trapped by the gravitational pull of a black hole?
Newton thought that only objects with mass could produce a gravitational force on each other. Applying Newton's theory of gravity, one would conclude that since light has no mass, the force of gravity couldn't affect it. Einstein discovered that the situation is a bit more complicated than that. First he discovered that gravity is produced by a curved space-time. Then Einstein theorized that the mass and radius of an object (its compactness) actually curves space-time. Mass is linked to space in a way that physicists today still do not completely understand. However, we know that the stronger the gravitational field of an object, the more the space around the object is curved. In other words, straight lines are no longer straight if exposed to a strong gravitational field; instead, they are curved. Since light ordinarily travels on a straight-line path, light follows a curved path if it passes through a strong gravitational field. This is what is meant by "curved space," and this is why light becomes trapped in a black hole.
From this one could conclude that space is falling into the black hole.
There is more than one way to see things. Everything isn't black and white.
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