Ok so I have just asked the question what is a singularity?

Question

but am now confused...is a black hole the definition of a singularity or an example.....if not what would you catagorise the end of a cone as? As this is a point with no width, height or depth...is that not a singularity? sorry if this is dumb.....or does singularity require the presence of mass?

Answer 1

A singularity is a point at which a mathematical object is not defined or fails to be well behaved. In physics the point is normally defined in space time, but other co-ordinates can be considered.

For instance, f(x) = 1/x is not well behaved at x = 0. And x = 0 appears a lot in physics. So the usefulness of having f(x) = 1/x be well behaved was not lost on physicists, and led Dirac to formulate the delta function which, while still leading to an infinite value at x = 0 still has a well behaved integral.

This is what is normally meant by a singularity in physics - an object that is not well behaved at a point but which has a well behaved integral. A black hole is an example of this because it has perfectly well defined properties such as mass, but bends space time to infinite gradient.

The end of a cone, on the other hand, is perfectly well behaved mathematically and so is not a singularity.

Answer 2

A singularity is an event that happened once and will never happen again.
The only singularity was a space-time pulse that started the beginning of the universe.
If a black hole could exist maybe you could say that a singularity existed at its center a point of infinite density.
Most people do not seem to realize what eternity entails.


A singularity could be compared to an eternal time span.
Let us make a comparison.
Zero,a billionth of a second and a billion years.
After zero you have two marks that are distinguishable.
Let us raise the billion to the power of a billion again these numbers can be compared with each other.
We take this incredible number and raise it to the power of itself,we do this a million times a second for a million years.
This incredible number still has relevance to the billionth of a second.
If you compare these numbers to eternity they vanish.
Eternity is a mathematical symbol with no relevance to reality!
A singularity requires parameters that can not exist!!

Answer 3

There are two examples in the universe where singularities occur. As everyone else has pointed out, they exist at the center of black holes, where they are infinitely small and infinitely dense. The other example is the state of the universe just before the "big bang"...the pinpoint that everything was born from is exactly the same thing...a singularity. Space and time "began" at the big bang, and both literally seem to "end" wherever there's a black hole. The problem with this is that in order for General Relativity to work, there can be NO SINGULARITIES.
So, defining what precisely the nature is of the interior of black holes is the key to completing the picture Einstein gave us...seeing as all other elements of his theory apparently work VERY WELL.....define THAT, and you'll eliminate the singularities (redefining them).

Answer 4

The Question
(Submitted September 12, 2001)

At the center of a black hole the singularity point has zero volume and infinite density. I know that the singularity is a point in space rather than an object with specific dimensions, but how is it possible for something to have zero volume and infinite density?


The Answer
This is indeed difficult to grasp. Actually at the center of a black hole spacetime has infinite curvature and matter is crushed to infinite density under the pull of infinite gravity. At a singularity, space and time cease to exist as we know them. The laws of physics as we know them break down at a singularity, so it's not really possible to envision something with infinite density and zero volume. You might check out the web site for further information on back holes and singularities:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html.

Answer 5

Isn't the singularity the theoretical centre of a black hole? Not really an answer is it!

Answer 6

A singularity isn't really a physical thing, it's a mathematical expression. The answer to this question is unfortunately outside of the scope of yahoo answers. If you want a complete answer to that question, a couple of years of education in physics will probably do it.

Answer 7

A cone is time, so I believe, the `Singularity I presume is a string!Sorry that is as far epistemology goes.

Answer 8

a singularity is a general description of a spacial phenomenon such as a black hole or a worm hole.

Answer 9

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