Being a layperson I won't understand everything about it but I am interested in a great many things, one of which is physics.
2006-08-29 17:18:41 · 7 answers · asked by synchronicity915 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
There are many types of singularities...
In mathematics, a singularity is in general a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined, or a point of an exceptional set where it fails to be well-behaved in some particular way, such as differentiability. See singularity theory for general discussion of the geometric theory, which only covers some aspects.
Mechanical singularity is a position or configuration of a mechanism or a machine where the subsequent behaviour cannot be predicted, or the forces or other physical quantities involved become infinite or undeterministic. When the underlaying engineering equations of a mechanism or machine are evaluated at the singular configuration (if any exists), then those equations exhibit mathematical singularity.
The spatial singularity is a scientific term for what is popularly known as a black hole. It occurs when matter in our universe is compressed to infinitely small proportions, a mathematical point. When this happens, the gravitational force becomes dominant and causes space-time to fold in on itself, creating the spherical event horizon, which separates the singularity from the rest of the universe. Because nothing, not even light, can escape from beyond the event horizon, we currently have no information about what this region of the singularity is like. Moreover, the only mathematical properties we can currently apply to a black hole include only mass (measured by the strength of the gravitational pull), volume (calculated in three dimensions using the Schwarzschild Radius), electrical charge, temperature and spin.
2006-08-29 19:39:45 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Singularity is a mathematical concept. Physically There is no singularity. When a mathematical representation of physical phenomena fails( when a physical property goes to infinity or indeterminate) that point is called a singularity. It does have any meaning except the proposed mathematical solution fails.
One such singularity is black holes The gravity and mass are infinity. Other singularity is the mach = 1 ( at mach =1 the lift and drag is infinity).
2006-08-30 01:23:47 · answer #2 · answered by Dr M 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In mathematics, a singularity is in general a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined, or a point of an exceptional set where it fails to be well-behaved in some particular way, such as differentiability.
For example the function f=(1/x) has a singularity at x=0
2006-08-30 01:17:43 · answer #3 · answered by Farshad 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's essentially a point in space time where the entire fabric of space itself is destroyed. Within a black hole atleast.
It is commonly known as the center point of a black hole in which the gravitational field becomes immesurable.
A singularity of a black hole essentially is a point in space that has collapsed in upon itself, and in doing so has bent space in such a way that is actually destoryed space on the smallest scale of measurement, called planck length. In doing so, a singularity is essentially...a point in space that is absolutely nothing.
It is defined as 'infinitely small' but, something infinitely small does in fact not exist. It is nothing!
Singularities are sometimes used to describe things incredibly small and are different from black hole singularities. These are usually just points in space that are less than 1.6x 10^-35 M in diameter. ^^
For example, before time began energy was contained within a point in space about 1.6x 10^-35 M across, and thus is described as a singularity.
Hopefully that helped.
2006-08-30 00:24:40 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Mathematically, space is described by a structure called a "manifold". The manifold is accompanied by a collection of very nice functions called "maps" which relate it to sections of Euclidean space of the same dimension.
A singularity is just a place on the manifold where none of the maps relate to actual places in Euclidean space (they map the singularity in the manifold to a point at infinity, and infinity is the non-real place in Euclidean space).
That's what you get when you try to describe a black hole, a singularity, mathematically: a "bad spot" where the mathematics breaks down in one or more ways.
2006-08-30 00:46:02 · answer #5 · answered by John D 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's a point in space of INFINITE density. Also it has tremendous gravitional pull on everything near it.
2006-08-30 00:24:30 · answer #6 · answered by eggman 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There aren't any around to look at, and if there were, we would not be here.
2006-08-30 00:23:27 · answer #7 · answered by Computer Guy 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋