From: Steven Eiger (eiger@montana.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 17 2000 - 09:03:05 PDT
Message-Id: <l03102800b61223da8d0f@[153.90.150.107]> Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 10:03:05 -0600 From: Steven Eiger <eiger@montana.edu> Subject: Re: pinhole Re: Questions about light
Regarding light travelling into black holes. I can imagine light headed
toward a black hole, it would be bent into it, but would always just miss
it, as it is a singularity, ie. very small; this would cause the light to
orbit about the black hole in ever tightening rings (as the black holes
mass increases), at the speed of light. Centrifugal force is provided by
the black hole's gravity. what happens as the circle is smaller than the
wavelength of the light? Now, I know nothing about such things, but see no
reason that the light speed must change, other than it is travelling
through matter that has been converted to quarks and electrons by tidal
forces, or whatever is gong on near the singularity. I am guessing that
the acceleration on light caused by mass changes direction, and not speed;
that space-time is bent, but the speed of light remains a constant. I can
envision light collapsing into the hole at some point as the wavelength is
larger than the flight radius; I imagine that the energy from the light
would be put into something akin to big bang sort of interactions. I write
this to encourage Paul or whoever to correct it; I really do not have a
clue. Eiger
Steven Eiger, Ph.D.
Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience and the WWAMI Medical Education
Program
PO Box 173148
Montana State University - Bozeman
Bozeman, MT 59717-3148
Voice: (406) 994-5672
E-mail: eiger@montana.edu
FAX: (406) 994-7077
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