Thursday, February 14, 2013

Force and Black Holes.

Exercise is the most important tool in the tool box of writers and thinkers. The increased blood flow benefits a properly exercised mind. I've asked in the past, but how do you stimulate your creativity? Besides puzzles and problems, I like meditation to help with focus.It comes in all shapes and sizes, from sitting quietly and breathing, to reading the same passage over and reflecting on it. Even taking a quiet couple of hours to sit and focus on writing helps with focus.
My meditative writing state will help my transport back into the world of science. I want to take the opportunity to explore the lands of time travel, a world explored by many minds; some talented, some imaginative, and others that make little sense.
I know by looking at my traffic for this site, that these post aren't all that popular. It's what I think about though, and this gives me a chance to talk to myself. Let's get started, shall we?
I want to talk about time dilatation, first. Black holes were my introduction to the deeper world of astronomy and astrophysics, so it would be some what fitting to start with black holes and the massive gravity they create.
Gravity is a force. An object falls to the earth due to this force. It not only falls, but it accelerates. People who took a high school physics class can usually recite at least one of the three laws of gravity. But how many can recite the equation "The force of gravity is equal to the gravitational constant multiplied by the ratio of the product of two masses over their distance squared." And that, my imaginary friends, is how calculate the force of gravity. If you wanted to know the force between, say, the sun and the earth, then all you would need to know is the mass of both objects (1.9891 × 1030 kg for the sun and 5.972E24 kg for the earth) and the distance (1 AU or 149,597,871 km)  between their centers of gravity and plug it into that calculation. A funny thing happens with an equation like this. If the gravitational constant is just that, a constant, then the way you would increase the force of gravity is by increasing the product of the mass of two objects (which is easy to do with a mathematical error) or to decrease the distance between them. The other thing is, when the distance of the objects has reached 0, then you have reached the limit for the equation.
A black hole shrinks in size, but the mass stays the same, allowing you to draw closer to its center of gravity. So the force of gravity is greater. This was the way black holes were explained to me.
So how does time travel work with black holes? 
Well, I guess that's a topic I can save for next time. Until then, I need to post this otherwise it will sit in my drafts folder with the hope that "Someday I'll edit it and publish it!", and I can't have that. So hopefully I'll keep you in suspense until then.

4 comments:

  1. You should time travel back to the days when Einstein was working on his theory of relativity. Might have been cool to sit in the room with him the first time he explained it to someone else. :)

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  2. I don't know why but every time I reload this page its in German. Regardless thanks for participating!

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  3. I've always found blackholes fascinating. they provide so many fictional possibilities!

    Stopping by to welcome you on board the A to Z Challenge April 2013.
    Look forward to your challenge posts!

    Twitter: @AprilA2Z
    #atozchallenge

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  4. Blackholes are an interesting topic! Dropping by from the Wormhole blogfest. lovely to meet you!
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

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