From: Matthew Freestone <matthew@matthewf.demon.co.uk>
Subject: (urth) black holes
Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 14:32:47 +0100

Hi, 
Just thought I'd add my bit to the black hole debate:

Prion wrote:
>as the hole absorbs the matter right next to it
>while in the sun, it grows larger and its gravitational force grows as
>well, in a self-feeding cycle that only ends after all of the sun's
>matter has been drawn into it, which occurs more and more quickly as
>it absorbs the matter right next to it at almost the speed of light
>all the time, and it's surface area increases the more it absorbs. 
This sounds right - it's a positive feedback cycle, but it doesn't prove
your claim that the process only takes a few seconds: it depends how big
the black hole was to start with, and on the rate of growth. Not being
an astrophysicist, I'm not sure how to calculate these things, but the
point is that this is an argument where you need the numbers, not the
handwaving version.

Cheers,
--                              II         |\      _,,,---,,_
Matt Freestone                  II    zzz. /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_.
matthew@matthewf.demon.co.uk    II        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'
www.matthewf.demon.co.uk/       II       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)


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