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Leptons, Quarks, and Black Holes
Name: Patrick E.
Status: educator
Age: 50's
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1/13/2003
Question:
While gravity is the force which prevents escape of light from a Black
Hole resulting in a "large" Schwarzchild radius due to gravity being a
comparatively weak force compared to an electromagnetic force then is it
possible that nuclear particles (quarks and leptons) could be "Black Holes"
based not upon gravity as the operating force but upon the electromagnetic
force such that the "Schwarzchild radius" would be much, much smaller?
Replies:
Probably not. Of all the forces operating on particles, only gravity has
no repulsive component. It is always attractive. This statement may require
revision, with the increasing evidence of the existence of "dark matter",
but at our present level of understanding, gravity is always attractive.
Whether this remains true at extremely high densities and temperatures just
seconds after the "Big Bang" -- I do not think anyone knows. But (again at
our present level of understanding) on the typical scale of galaxies, only
gravity is solely attractive.
Vince Calder
Patrick,
A nuclear particle is not a black hole for several reasons. First, nuclear
particles can easily emit photons of light. A property of a black hole is
that most light going in does not come back out as light. Also, quantum
physics poses a problem. The location of a nuclear particle is not
absolute. Nuclear particles are just as much wave-like as matter-like.
They do not have one exact location. They have a "distribution" of possible
locations. Finally, the electromagnetic force does not work like the
gravitational force. Gravity seems to attract EVERYTHING. Gravity provides
everything with the same acceleration when at the same location. This
allows gravity to be considered as an affect on space rather than on
individual particles. This is the basis of Einstein's General Theory of
Relativity. Mass "bends" space, causing everything passing through that
location in space to experience the same acceleration. A black hole is
space bent so much that moving the speed of light is not fast enough to
overcome this acceleration and escape. When you get down to individual
particles, no barrier is absolute.
Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Physics Instructor
Illinois Central College
No, I do not think so. The unique feature of gravity is that all the
"charge" (mass) is of the same sign (as far as we know) and each bit
of mass attracts all other mass, so as you add mass to an object, the
gravitational force always increases. In electromagnetism, where
there are two kinds of charge and each charge repels other charge of
the same type and attracts charge of the opposite type.
Otherwise, black electromagnetic holes would be much smaller. If you
could get rid of all electrons in every atom in the earth and in your
body, when standing on the surface of this weird earth, you would be
repelled by a force roughly 10E44 times larger than you are now
attracted to the earth by your weight. That is 1 followed by 44 zeros
times your weight!
You also cannot do it with the nuclear force, which is even stronger
than the electromagnetic force. That is because the nuclear force is
of very short range (10E-15 m). That is why nuclei are about that
size. A uranium nucleus is about as close as you can get to a nuclear
force black hole.
Quite a strange universe, isn't it?
Best, Dick Plano
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