MadSci Network: Astronomy
Query:

Subject: Is relativistic length contraction/time dilation an elusion?

Date: Tue Mar 26 10:31:41 2002
Posted by Steven Tomichek
Grade level: nonaligned School: No school entered.
City: Waterford State/Province: Ct Country: USA
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 1017156701.As
Message:

1)  I recently read an answer to a question I asked some time ago. The question 
had to do with a person falling into a black hole. From the persons reference 
frame he hits the bottom very quickly. From the reference frame of a person 
outside the gravity well, he doesn't hit the surface because the black hole 
evaporates in a finite time while time dilation causes him to go slower and 
slower. The answer was that he hits the surface just as the black hole 
completely evaporates. But then the scientists finished by saying that it was 
an elusion because he hits the surface very quickly. I didn’t think there was 
any elusion here, what happens is real, the difference only depends on your 
reference frame.
2)  Following this thought: I just read about the Einstien-Bose condensate 
theory of black holes. Isn’t this another model for what I’m saying. If from 
the reference frame outside the gravity well a person takes an infinite time to 
hit the surface (singularity) than the black hole can never really form a 
singularity as it takes an infinite time for the star to collapse to a 
singularity. Once it collapses beyond a neutron star it becomes some exotic 
substance that’s not made of sub atomic particles.


Re: Is relativistic length contraction/time dilation an elusion?

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