Fall into a black hole (time distortion)?

Question

Everyone's answer to what happens if you fall into a black hole is that you would get killed by being squished (by tidal forces). But it seems that everyone fails to keep in mind the relativistic effect that gravity has on time. Since time for the person falling will slow when they enter the stronger gravitational field, my idea is that the person will starve to death long before they actually get squished. Hows my logic?
For those of you who cant refrain from telling me that I will get squished no matter what, then answer this follow up question. Assume a hydrogen atom falls into the black hole, how many revolutions will its electron make before the atom becomes part of the black hole core? Compare this to a hydrogen atom that has not fallen into the black hole.

amansscientiae, you want to play that game. Then change "electron orbits" to how many oscillations does a quark in the proton make?

Answer 1

No, you won't starve to death. Here's the thing:
When you travel at relativistic speeds, your WHOLE BODY travels that fast. Not just your mind - also, among other things, your stomach. This is because every single atom in your body is affected by relativistic travel the same way, so your body would use less energy over time (although it would seem the same to you), and digest food more slowly, and move that food through your digestive tract more slowly, and so on and so forth.

You won't starve to death because everything about you would slow down.

And yes, you would eventually get disassembled. How long that would take, I have no idea. It would probably be pretty quick from your point of view (because, remember, you appear to be moving more slowly while everything around you is moving the same speed).

Chances are you'd probably be ripped apart before you have time to think about being dead or hungry or anything, now that I think about it.

As for how many revolutions the electron will make? Well, electrons don't make revolutions (they orbit in a defined region), but let's pretend they did. Compared to a normal one? Fewer, for two reasons.

a) time dilation. Remember, EVERYTHING slows down.
b) the electron will be stripped from the proton before reaching the singularity, because the singularity's gravity will at some point overpower the electrical forces holding the electron in orbit around the proton.

Answer 2

Things that go near a black hole end up like a bug on a windshield. The word hole in this case is misleading. It is not a hole in the sense of what we know here on Earth like a hole in the ground or a drain in the sink with sides and so forth.

A black hole is a sphere like our Earth or the Sun. Like the Sun, a black hole also is a star who's gravity is so strong that light cannot escape it's surface and shine out into space.

If you could get close enough to a black hole you would see what would appear to be a dark circle . This is how it came to be called a black hole. Compared to and among all the bright stars in the heavens these strange phenomenon are like a dark hole in space.

Knowing this now you can see that anything that gets near a black hole does not go anywhere but to certain destruction

Answer 3

Time ceases when you enter the black hole because matter is so densely packed there is no space, no space, no movement, no movement, no time. The same applies for light in the event horizon, time does not exist at the speed of light. If, as science says, gravity is millions of times weaker than any of the other forces, I find it hard to believe that the electron would be ripped from the atom, there is some doubt about the electron having any mass.

Answer 4

Please remember, the passage of time is relative. Time for a person or object in a gravitational field passes more slowly RELATIVE to a reference frame far away from any gravity. The person or object in the grav field feels as if time passes normal for them but observes time in the outside frame to speed up.

As seen by us, an astronaut falling toward a black hole will move slower and slower as he approaches the event horizon but it will take an infinite time (as seen by us) for him to reach the horizon.

As seen by the astronaut, he will be approaching the horizon very quickly. The rest of the universe will appear speeded up. Earth will seem to orbit the sun in seconds, as seen by him. He will reach and cross the event horizon without noticing anything strange. The time it then takes him to hit the singularity (as he sees on his watch) depends on the mass of the black hole. For a solar mass hole, it would be only microseconds. For a 10 billion solar mass hole, it would be a few hours.

As he falls toward the singularity in a huge mass hole, he would feel tidal forces pulling him apart. Gravity pulls his feet harder than his head. His ship, then his body, then his atoms would all be pulled apart and stretched like a sting just before everything hits the singularity. We do not know what happens at the singularity.

In relativity, when you ask how long an action takes, you must specify what reference frame the action takes place in and what frame the observer is in.

Answer 5

Your idea is wrong. The freely falling person, hydrogen atom etc. does not experience any gravitation to first order and therefor time does not change. It is the second order effects that kill.

Electrons don't make revolutions around nuclei. Please learn some modern physics.

The black hole does not have a core, either. It simply divides space-time into two regions, one outside and one inside of the event horizon. One can go through one way but not come out again. We do not know what happens on the inside because we do not have a quantum theory of gravity, yet.

Please play again.

LOL. Just because you replace electrons with quarks and a 1/r potential with a "kind of linear" gluon mediated quark-quark potential, does not change quantum mechanics. It does not change your attitude problem about wanting to be a physics expert without actually wanting to learn physics, either.

:-)

Answer 6

Well, your logic is a bit convoluted since time is the key factor in analyzing your example. It is theorized that time within a singularity (black hole) actually ceases to exist (yes, time slows relative to your position in the event horizon but as you get closer to the singularity where time slows down to the point of not moving at all). So, you'd never actually get "squished" ... instead, you'd essentially be pulled apart an atom at a time while you make your way though the event horizon until you reached inifinty.

Answer 7

Remember that the frame of reference is relative. Whatever time distortions you see are measured from outside the black hole. Measured in the reference frame of the object falling into the black hole, time appears to run normally.

BTW, I'm not too sure about the method of demise. Eventually you would be mashed into nothingness, but there would also be very strong forces tending to rip you apart long before then. But you may already be dead by the time that you get ripped apart prior to being mashed.

Answer 8

Any timelike world line that enters the horizon of a black hole necessarily arrives at the singularity in the center after a finite amount of proper time. Furthermore, that time is fairly short (hours at most for galaxy-mass black holes).

Answer 9

Well the time when the tidal forces hit IS the question. Generally its assumed that they will turn you into spaghetti before time stops. So, unless your Robinette Broadhead and escape, your dead of spaghettification before you can die by starvation.

Answer 10

well theres where your messed up. time for you would continue as normal. but to someone viewing you ti would appear as if time has stopped.