Being a scientist, I know a lot of good crap. For instance, why the sky is blue, and why liquid helium pours itself out of its own container, no assistance needed.
But all these are mere trivia compared to all the really weird nonsense we can find out there in the cosmos, courtesy of the by-products of pursuing a science degree anyway.
One of them concerns black holes.
Now we all know what they are. For those of you who don't, I will will just say that they are gravitational collapses of stars when the nuclear fuel is all used up.
One of the first things one learns about black holes is that if you fall into one of them, you die in a really interesting way (As Hugo Drax would put it). Apparently, according to the very accurate Newtonian equations, as refined by Einstein, the gravity force on your feet becomes much more than the gravity force on your head (if you fall in feet first). Thus, you get "stretched" to death. This is an extreme tidal effect.
However, according to recent delving into the equations (as provided by the latest computers), there is a time-dependence to this. To wit, an even more interesting death. As you get nearer to the black hole, the forces on you oscillate in time, enabling (lovely use of the word) you to die whilst being "pummelled" by the nature of spacetime.
In effect, you are "pummelled" to death.
A New Meaning to the "pummell horse" in gymnastics.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
A New Meaning to Gymnastics
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2 comments:
wow, that IS really weird nonsense. interesting. and wow, that's the longest you've gone without a blog entry since you started the blog. just letting you know we're watching. i might not get all, if any, of your allusions, but your entries are still interesting. and so are the replies! (or should i say dissertations?) your friends are way too smart, too. where do you find these people? :P
I find them in the physics rooms occasionally, and they in general tell their smart friends.
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