I’d like to take credit for this, but it actually came from one of my website subscribers who entered into one of my prior ‘provide a caption to my cartoon’ competitions. Thanks Troy for this entry.
I’ve cunningly posted this to show you all how easy and how much fun it can be to enter into my competitions. So, don’t forget to enter my latest one – the easiest one ever – with Name the Alien.
Well, the white hole, hey? In the wonderful words of Wiki
‘In general relativity, a white hole is a hypothetical region of space-time which cannot be entered from the outside, although matter and light can escape from it. In this sense, it is the reverse of a black hole, which can only be entered from the outside, from which nothing, including light, can escape.’
Put simply, where as the black hole sucks everything into it, the white hole spits it out. When you put the two together, you have a wormhole with one end sucking, the end spitting – that’s what a scientist would consider to be perfect balance of energy in equals energy out.
Unlike our friend the black hole which we have observed in space, the white hole hasn’t and hence is only theoretical under the theory of general realtivity.
The idea of white holes were new to me. Am I the only ignorant one out here in cyber space?
James Pomerantz, author of the scientific article ‘The Grass is always Greener: An Ecological Analysis of an Old Aphorism (1983). This scholar proves that ‘optical and perceptual laws alone will make the grass at a distance look greener to the human eye than the blades of grass perpendicular to the ground.’
To recap on the thought experiment of ‘What happens when you enter a black hole, click here to view a prior post
Yes, lazy cartooning where I get to use the last cartoon and add different captions.
But behind every sensational headline is a story…and probably a misinterpretation along the way too
I was curious to find out more, especially since my cartoons consist of quite a few black holes – What would it mean if they didn’t exist? – Should I just re-ink the black hole away? Well, after a bit of research, I discovered they still exist, but not under the strict definition of ‘nothing is meant to escape from the evil wrath of a black hole’. The new theory suggests that matter does escape, so hence under the strict definition, black holes don’t exist. But for the laymen such as myself, the whole imagery of a black bit of space sucking in space objects is still valid, and hence so are my drawings.
If I’ve peaked the nerd in you and you want to find out more, below is my simple mechanical engineering interpretation of black hole theory.
The first possibility involves the big crush. Based on Einstein’s theory of relativity the eminent physicist Stephen Hawking helped provide a scientistic explanation of how a black hole operates. He published his theories way back in 1974, but with his latest paper, has now changed his tune – give me a minute, that is explained further on. Once you enter and pass what’s referred to as the event horizon (the invisible boundary from which there is no return) you get stretched out like Guy Fawkes until your sockets ‘pop’, followed by a crushing within the heart of the black hole’s dense inner core.
If being squished into something too small for the naked microscope to see, then how about a bit of sizzling? This is where the second theory comes into play. Physist Joseph Polchinski conducted a thought experiment where he sent his victim off into space in search of a black hole, just to see what would happen to him (mathematically) when he entered the ominous black hole. He worked with the laws of quantum physics (how sub atomic particles operate) and to his team’s surprise, passing the event horizon would result in a swift incineration – burnt to a crisp in an instant. Naturally this caused a kerfuffle amongst the scientific community as it contradicted Eintein’s fundamental law of relativity.
Fast forward, to January 2014 when Stephen Hawking posted a paper proposing an alternate theory (to his previously highly acclaimed 1974 works). A softer version to the event horizon – an apparent horizon. Once entered you are temporarily suspended, before being scrambled up into undistinguishable tiny bits and pieces and then released. This scrambling of information would not be recognisable from its original source and has been described as trying to put back together a burnt piece of paper.
So there you have it – black holes made easy
Reference: too many too mention all, but this one by Nature was rather user friendly
I have Darren from Just watching the wheel go round to thank for coming up with the wordplay idea for Australien. Being Australian and a lover of all things alien, I couldn’t help but draw this character. Thought he might have a flying thong spaceship to get around in too… but that’s another cartoon.
