Super Solid Objects

[Popcorn Sutton]

Black holes are my first candidate. Theyre probably so extremely solid that touching their surface would burn you so extremely, you couldn't even imagine the burn you would get because it's so solid.

It might be like freezer burn. Thats how solid it is.

[swansont]

The first-order model of a black hole is a singularity where all the mass is, but the black hole is the size of the Schwarzschild radius. And, of course, black holes can grow by accumulating more mass or energy. How is that "super solid"?

[Ophiolite]

Also, why would super-solids be sufficiently hot or cold to burn you? That makes no sense.

[John Cuthber]

From

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation

"A black hole of one solar mass has a temperature of only 60 nanokelvin (60 billionths of a kelvin)"

and

 

"The electromagnetic radiation is as if it were emitted by a black body with a temperature that is inversely proportional to the black hole's mass."

So I can (if I could be bothered) calculate the mass of a black hole such that its temperature is 20 C (71F)

 

Also, it's my understanding that, as you fell through the event horizon of a big enough black hole, you wouldn't actually notice anything special (locally)- at least not at first.

So this candidate for "super solid" doesn't seem to work.

[EdEarl]

When one touches a solid, such as steel, the feeling is one cause by electrostatic forces from the electrons in orbitals surrounding atoms. The electrons in you hand and the steel repel each other without touching. Both electrons and atomic nucleii are extremely small, which means the steel and your hand are mostly empty space. Thus, the idea of a solid is more an illusion than a reality.

 

Neutron stars can implode and become black holes if they gain enough mass; thus, they are not solid.

 

 

In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings.

One dimensional objects cannot be solid, since they are dimensionless. BB theory says that everything in the universe existed at a single point a very long time ago.

 

If you consider things we sense as solid, then I think you must choose a material that resists being compressed, as a steel ball resists compression. An explosion can compress them if the explosive is placed properly around the object, because everything, even steel has some elasticity.

Edited July 22, 2013 by EdEarl

[Popcorn Sutton]

It would feel somewhat like a burn because it's so extremely solid that even if you were to touch it slowly with your finger, it would tear apart your finger as you touched it because the mass is so focused in tiny little packets that when you touch it, it's the density of your finger vs the density of the super solid, your finger will be like cotton candy and rip to shreds. Imagine that the while object is so solid and so smooth that it's basically the smoothest razor to ever exist. It would basically be the most brutal cut ever. Your finger would literally melt into the surface like a drop of water on a frictionless plane.

Your finger would melt, then evaporate in the smallest units we could ever imagine.

 

You take one of these solid objects, and your slam them into another, and you can easily have enough mass for the creation of a galaxy.

[CharonY]

So what you are saying is that putting you fingers in a shredder gets you the same effect as putting it on a hot stove? I must be using my kitchen wrong.

[Bignose]

It would feel somewhat like a burn because it's so extremely solid that even if you were to touch it slowly with your finger, it would tear apart your finger as you touched it because the mass is so focused in tiny little packets that when you touch it, it's the density of your finger vs the density of the super solid, your finger will be like cotton candy and rip to shreds. Imagine that the while object is so solid and so smooth that it's basically the smoothest razor to ever exist. It would basically be the most brutal cut ever. Your finger would literally melt into the surface like a drop of water on a frictionless plane.

Your finger would melt, then evaporate in the smallest units we could ever imagine.

 

You take one of these solid objects, and your slam them into another, and you can easily have enough mass for the creation of a galaxy.

Popcorn, this is all great fiction and what not -- would make one heck of a weapon in a good pop sci-fi book or movie.

 

But this isn't science.

 

You can't just describe something without invoking some kind of mechanism, and then showing that that mechanism exists using experimental data, and the making predictions based on that mechanism. You don't get to just jump right to that prediction step, and even then, you need to make specific predictions not just 'shreds'. E.g. what forces make these shreds? how does that force vary by position, temperature, mass, etc.? How big are the shreds, size and shape?

 

Look, this imagination is great. It really is. But if you want to do science, you need to focus this imaginative energy into doing science by following the rules we've set up that makes really successful science. That means: prediction & comparison of that prediction with observation. Not just jumping ahead to fancifully describing what you think is the end result.

 

Again, that is story telling. Not science. Sorry.

[Popcorn Sutton]

I think I'm slipping into another depression. I forgot who said it, it was the guy who talks about m theory. He said, paraphrasing, that by making these claims, youre condemning yourself to a life of misery.

 

I'll take that life of misery though because it brings me alot of comfort.

 

Thanks for your input bignose, I truly value it.

It was Neil Turok.