I have a question

[Mudflappus]

Hello everyone. I am a Musician not a Physicist and thus I must apologize if the following question is mundane or even stupid. I sent it to an "Ask a Physicist" site on the net and I was told to Google Black Holes. Not satisfied with the answer I turn to you. Here's the question as I sent it:

 

" Dear Sir,

I am watching a Neil Degrasse Tyson interview in which he

is describing what a decent into a black hole might feel like if it were

possible to experience it. He mentioned that as time and space collapse into

a funnel, you would find yourself in a rapidly shrinking space that

ultimately extrudes you into sub atomic particles and beyond.

 

In the spirit of the idea that you could be aware during the fraction of

a millisecond it would take for the entire cycle to complete I ask:

 

Would the laws of Relativity prevent you from being aware that anything

was changing until there simply wasn't enough left of you to be cognizant

any more? If due to compression, an object shrinks as it moves through time.

Could the sensation of nothing at all occur if your mass compressed through

incremental velocity and harmonized with shrinking space you were being

sucked into?"

 

Again I apologize if this question is elementary in nature. While I have a love for Cosmology and it's associated disciplines, I am not functionally literate in the finer nuances. Thanks!

[Marqq]

Hi there. I'm no physicist either (more of a philosopher), but I'll answer as best I can.

One of the main parts of relativity is the concept of time-dilation. By itself, this would essentially stop time for you during assimilation into the black hole, because high gravity and high speed will slow the interaction of molecules, atoms, and even radioactive decay. Ignoring this, though, I'd imagine the increase of density in your body would be painful enough to notice. Still, I can't say whether the amount of time it takes for you to become a smudge is long enough for the pain signal to travel to your brain and be processed...

 

Without ignoring time-dilation, though, your speed at the point where gravity starts 'shrinking' you would essentially halt your electrochemical interactions, effectively keeping you from experiencing anything at all. So, yes, relativity would stop you from knowing what was happening, but if you could experience it, it would suck. (It IS a black hole, after all)

[Mudflappus]

Hi there. I'm no physicist either (more of a philosopher), but I'll answer as best I can.

One of the main parts of relativity is the concept of time-dilation. By itself, this would essentially stop time for you during assimilation into the black hole, because high gravity and high speed will slow the interaction of molecules, atoms, and even radioactive decay. Ignoring this, though, I'd imagine the increase of density in your body would be painful enough to notice. Still, I can't say whether the amount of time it takes for you to become a smudge is long enough for the pain signal to travel to your brain and be processed...

 

Without ignoring time-dilation, though, your speed at the point where gravity starts 'shrinking' you would essentially halt your electrochemical interactions, effectively keeping you from experiencing anything at all. So, yes, relativity would stop you from knowing what was happening, but if you could experience it, it would suck. (It IS a black hole, after all)

 

 

This is the kind of answer I was looking for. Thanks! The only part of the question that I thought might render it sublime is the notion that some sort of harmony between Space Time Compression and the physical size of the funnel one is being sucked into could not only exist but continue evenly through the entire process. Thanks again!