Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Death by Black Hole

In summary: I agree that they experience internal stress because the black hole attracts everything to it's center, so your left and right shoulders are going to experience acceleration towards each other. However, this internal stress doesn't occur because "space shrinks" or as he put it:"Space you occupy right here [arms up] is larger than space you occupy right here [arms down]" [4:10]All I wanted to point up is that relative "shrinkage" of space does not in any way cause the "squeeze" effect that he talks about in [4:27], but the fact that the gravitational forces are not parallel. And you definitely do not get "extruded through the fabric of space"...
  • #36
Crazy Tosser said:
The concern I was addressing is [...] that an object "occupies a different amount of space" and that causes it to be "squeezed"
Let us consider other crackpot references.
What happens to you if you fall into a black hole?
Matt McIrvin & [URL='https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/author/john-baez/' said:
John Baez[/URL]]I have to hit the singularity eventually, and before I get there there will be enormous tidal forces-- forces due to the curvature of spacetime-- which will squash me and my spaceship in some directions and stretch them in another until I look like a piece of spaghetti.
Misner said:
§32.6. THE FATE OF A MAN WHO FALLS INTO THE SINGULARITY AT R = 0

Consider the plight of an experimental astrophysicist who stands on the surface of a freely falling star as it collapses to R = 0.
As the collapse proceeds toward R = 0, the various parts of the astrophysicist's body experience different gravitational forces. His feet, which are on the surface of the star, are attracted toward the star's center by an infinitely mounting gravitational force; while his head, which is farther away, is accelerated downward by a somewhat smaller, though ever rising force. The difference between the two accelerations (tidal force) mounts higher and higher as the collapse proceeds, finally becoming infinite as R reaches zero. The astrophysicist's body, which cannot withstand such extreme forces, suffers unlimited stretching between head and foot as R drops to zero.
But this is not all. Simultaneous with this head-to-foot stretching, the astrophysicist is pulled by the gravitational field into regions of spacetime with ever-decreasing circumferential area, [itex]4\pi r^{-2}[/itex]. In order to accomplish this, tidal gravitational forces must compress the astrophysicist on all sides as they stretch him from head to foot. The circumferential compression is actually more extreme than the longitudinal stretching; so the astrophysicist, in the limit [itex]R\rightarrow0[/itex], is crushed to zero volume and indefinitely extended length.

Remember that, at least as soon as nuclei, an absolute scale is defined by the size of hadrons (so-called [itex]\Lambda_\text{QCD}[/itex]).
 
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  • #37
humanino said:
Or organize the next PF gathering at my place :-p

Thank you for the invitation ! Since I always want beer, does it mean that, unless I organize this PF gathering in a reasonable amount of time, I must come or I will contradict myself ?

Just keep a beer in your hand and no paradoxes will be apparent.

That gives me an idea: Black Hole Beer - the beer that no one can resist.
 
  • #38
humanino...

alone.jpg
 
  • #39
humanino said:
Let us consider other crackpot references.

McIrvin? Thorne? Wheeler? They have ALL been on TV! For that matter, so has Feynman! How can you trust anything they say?
 
  • #40
Chi Meson said:
McIrvin? Thorne? Wheeler? They have ALL been on TV! For that matter, so has Feynman! How can you trust anything they say?

Indeed! I often find it amusing that somehow a expert on TV is seen as being less qualified than an expert who writes a book.

Conversely, there are many times that my parents will get all excited about something seen on TV when I've told them the same thing before. Then they call me to tell me all about it.
 
  • #41
Man, I was skimming over threads and all I saw was "Neil Degrasse Tyson: Death by..."

I thought, oh man, no way he died! lol
 
  • #42
Wow, Newton invented integral calculus in 3 month? :O I can't even learn basic calculus in 3 month. Oh man I feel dumb. :\
 
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