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Equation 79 · Part 10 · A Horizon Is a Toll Booth, Not a Loophole

Numerator: 2GM

atidal(r)≈2GMr3 ℓ,a_{\rm tidal}(r) \approx \frac{2GM}{r^3}\,\ell,
2GM2GM

What this part means

The complete quantity above the fraction bar.

Its job in the formula

2GM occurs above the fraction bar. The numerator is divided by the entire denominator below it.

The passage around this formula

The bill here is tidal, not electromagnetic or mechanical, and it is the one place this construction is bounded directly by what has actually been observed rather than by an idealization. A rigid processor of size ℓ\ell falling radially experiences a stretching tidal acceleration between its two ends of approximately atidal(r)≈2GMr3 ℓa_{\rm tidal}(r) \approx \frac{2GM}{r^3}\,\ell. which at the horizon itself scales as ℓ\ell c6c^6/(4G2G^2M2M^2) — falling as the inverse square of the mass. For a processor of laboratory size ℓ\ell=1\,cm\mathrm{cm} at the horizon of a black hole with the mass measured for the progenitors of the first LIGO gravitational-wave detection, around 30\,M⊙M_\odot , this tidal stress is already about…

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Learn the underlying idea

A fraction a/b means a divided by b. The top number is the numerator; the bottom number is the denominator, and it cannot be zero.

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Sources cited in the surrounding passage

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