Equation 80 · A Horizon Is a Toll Booth, Not a Loophole
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Symbol c^6
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superscript
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which at the horizon itself scales as /(4) — falling as the inverse square of the mass. For a processor of laboratory size =1\, at the horizon of a black hole with the mass measured for the progenitors of the first LIGO gravitational-wave detection, around 30\, , this tidal stress is already about 1.110^5\, , on the order of ten thousand Earth gravities across a single centimeter — enough to disassemble ordinary hardware well before the horizon is reached [ 16 ] . For the Sagittarius A* mass used above, the same formula gives roughly 610^{-6}\, across the same centimeter: negligible, and consistent with the…
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which at the horizon itself scales as /(4) — falling as the inverse square of the mass. For a processor of laboratory size =1\, at the horizon of a black hole with the mass measured for the progenitors of the first LIGO gravitational-wave detection, around 30\, , this tidal stress is already about 1.110^5\, , on the order of ten thousand Earth gravities across a single centimeter — enough to disassemble ordinary hardware well before the horizon is reached [ 16 ] . For the Sagittarius A* mass used above, the same formula gives roughly 610^{-6}\, across the same centimeter: negligible, and consistent with the free-fall approximation actually holding at the horizon of a sufficiently large hole [ 14 ] . “Free fall is locally ordinary” is therefore not a universal statement about black holes; it is a statement whose validity is bounded, by real astrophysical data, to holes massive enough that the tidal term stays small over the processor’s own size — a condition satisfied at Sagittarius A*'s horizon and badly violated at a stellar-mass horizon of the kind LIGO has actually detected.
Sources cited in the surrounding passage
- [16] Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger ↗
- [14] First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way ↗
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