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Equation 79 · Part 6 · A Horizon Is a Toll Booth, Not a Loophole

fraction

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

What this part means

Divide the expression above the line by the one below it.

Its job in the formula

The expression above the fraction bar is divided by the complete expression below it. The denominator must not be zero.

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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