If you cant travel faster than light how does the gravity from a Black Hole prevent light from escaping?

Question

My understading of it is the gravitational pull of the Black Hole would accelarate you beyond light speed as it sucked you in.
Is this correct and does it mean you would be traveling at light speed or above?

Answer 1

The pull of the black hole will not accelerate you to beyond the speed of light. To an external observer, an object approaching a black hole gets closer and closer to the speed of light, and closer and closer to the event horizon--but the observer never sees the object cross the event horizon! An observer on the object, however, sees it passing right through as if nothing strange were happening. Other effects due to the extreme non-uniformity of the black hole's gravitational field would be felt by the observer on the object, and it would not be pleasant (he would be stretched and crushed, but not because he is travelling fast).

EDIT: Relativity does not assign any particular properties to the event horizon except that that is the point where escape velocity equals light velocity. It is interesting to note that the formula for the radius of the event horizon (Schartzchild Radius) can be derived by computing escape velocity using classical theory (Newton's laws). It comes out the same as the relativistic computation. The laws of physics still hold within the radius as required by relativity theory. Do not confuse the event horizon with a singularity (collapsed black hole) which has zero dimensions and infinite density. It is in a singularity that the laws of physics break down.

Also, it may seem impossible that the external observer never sees the object cross the event horizon, but the observer on the object sees nothing unusual happen and passes right through. How can the object be outside the event horizon and inside the event horizon at the same time? The answer is, that the external observer can only see the light coming from the object, which remains outside the black hole even though the object has crossed the boundary.

Answer 2

No one know what happens once you cross the event horizon of a black hole (this is where no light or anything else can escape from the black hole). It is possible that you'll be traveling faster than speed of light, which also means that you're also traveling backwards in time.

Yes, you can't travel faster than light when you're outside the event horizon. But currently there is physical theory to describe what happens within the event horizon. As a matter of fact, Special and General Relativity tells us that at the event horizon time appears to stop.

Answer 3

No one know what happens once you cross the event horizon of a black hole (this is where no light or anything else can escape from the black hole). It is possible that you'll be traveling faster than speed of light, which also means that you're also traveling backwards in time.

Yes, you can't travel faster than light when you're outside the event horizon. But currently there is physical theory to describe what happens within the event horizon. As a matter of fact, Special and General Relativity tells us that at the event horizon time appears to stop.

Answer 4

I read that if you were watching something, an astronaut, lets say, fall into a black hole, although time would not change for the astronaut, because of time dilation, it would appear to slow down to the observer. By the time he reached the event horizon, it would take an infinite amount of time form your perspective for him to fall through. I asked on this forum a while back that if this were true, how can they say black holes have gained mass and grown in the past. I still don't understand it, because I didn't get any good answers. It seems to me you would be going at the speed of light at the event horizon too. So I don't get it very well myself.

Answer 5

Your understanding is incorrect. The gravitational field of a black hole will certainly accelerate you to near relativistic speeds. But the gravitational acceleration also causes a time dilation effect (as predicted by General Relativity) so that you, within your inertial frame, would not experience supra-luminal velocities. The gravitational field of a black hole literally causes the local spacetime continuum to 'fold back into itself' so that the required velocity to escape it would exceed lightspeed.

But this is all academic, as the tidal forces you would experience would rip you to shreds long before you ever reached the event horizon ☺

HTH

Doug

Answer 6

Not according to the laws of physics are we know it. As an object approaches the speed of light, the mass increases and approaches infinity, so it becomes increasingly difficult to make it speed up.

A black hole warps space, so that light travels at the speed of light, but ends up where it started, so it can't escape.

Answer 7

You are incorrect, the gravitational pull of the black hole would exert a great force upon you, but rather than increasing your momentum by increasing your velocity (accelerating), once you got fast enough much of your increase in momentum would be due to an increase in your mass. You would never go as fast as the speed of light.

Answer 8

There are 2 solutions: the first is that in accordance to commonplace relativity, gravity is the warping (curving)of area by a mass. mild's direction with the help of area will be affected by that warp as will each little thing else. contained in the shape horizon area is warped adequate that no longer something vacationing at c or slower might want to be on a global-line or direction that leads outdoors the shape horizon. the 2d answer considers gravity as a field. in spite of the truth that we in many cases evaluate gravity to be generated by a mass, because that all of us comprehend that mass and power are equivalent, evidently massless gadgets are also coupled to gravity with the help of the flexibility they own. It is likewise a result that mild itself warps area, in spite of the truth that very somewhat. in truth, a hypothesis of commonplace relativity referred to as a kugelblitz is a black-hollow shaped completely from a spotlight of power really than mass.

Answer 9

well, i dont think anyone in the world truly knows the answer, but, as far as is currently believed about black holes, you wouldn't necessarily be traveling faster than light going into a black hole.

its pretty impossible for me to try and explain, so just go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

Answer 10

light has mass, according to Einstein's famous equation,
E=mc^2
And anything with mass is susceptable to a gravitational pull...and since the gravity of a black hole is virually infinite, light would not be able to escape.