Re: Student Question

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 09:23 AM 10/28/99 -0400, James Harris wrote:
> If you were to theoretically go past the event horizon on a black hole and
> somehow manage to escape the gravitational pull

You can't escape.  That's an essential property of the event horizon.

> by spinning fast enough,
> orbiting around the singularity and using centrifugal force to your
> advantage

You can't have enough centrifugal force to do any good.  Orbiting the hole
at the speed of light would not suffice.

> would you eventually catch up to your feet and have to climb over
> yourself?

That's like asking
  "Suppose I sprint across the town square in a town that
   doesn't have a town square;  will I get tired?"
or
  "Suppose 2 = 3;  Does that mean that 4 = 5?"

The answer is anything you want it to be.  There is an ancient principle of
logic that says if you start from a false premise, you can prove anything
you want to.

______________________________________________________________
copyright (C) 1999 John S. Denker             jsd@monmouth.com