Quote:
Originally Posted by dpastern
Einstein pretty much proved that Newtons laws of gravity weren't wholly accurate. For the planets they're mostly OK, but not totally accurate. Einsteins theories have been proven many times to be on the money. Gravitational lensing exists, and initial experiments have shown that time/space does curve. There's a probe due to go up in the next few years that sets out to prove time/space curvature beyond a doubt.
Black holes were first semi described by a astronomer a few hundred years ago - very loosely formulated in rough principle. I'm trying to find the guys name, but it's eluding me at the moment.
I really do recommend reading that book I linked to in an earlier post, it's a very good read.
Dave
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Pierre Simon LaPLace postulated the existance of Black Holes in 1795. Unfortunately in the context of Newtonian physics it would not have been possible for him to come up with the correct mathematical model.
The divergence of Newtonian physics from GR is apparent in how each theory predicts the velocity of an object falling into a black hole as measured by an observer outside the event horizon.
Newtonian physics predicts a steady increase in velocity which reaches a maximum value at the event horizon.
GR on the other hand predicts the object reaches a maximum velocity at 3 times the value of the radius of the event horizon, then begins to slow down. Finally at the event horizon the object is stationary.
We will never see an object actually fall into a black hole.
Regards
Steven