# Do black holes frighten you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2024, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839 "2024-02-20T16:04:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/41 "2024-02-25T18:09:29Z")
I think micro black holes routinely pass through the Earth and are manifested by the disappearance of keys and socks. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/42 "2024-02-25T18:14:14Z")
To the best of my grossly over-simplified understanding of that video, the essence of the argument is that any real black hole will have some rotation, and is therefore described by the Kerr metric (named after the same Kerr talked about in the video) and the theoretical point singularity of a non-rotating (Schwarzschild) black hole now becomes a **ring singularity** perpendicular to the axis of rotation. Also, even in a theoretical non-rotating black hole, quantum uncertainty suggests (**[but doesn’t prove](https://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/archive/archive_2013/today13-11-01_NutshellReadMore.html)**) that the singularity might not be smaller than the Planck length, and therefore not “infinitely” dense. But this is only conjecture based on known laws of quantum mechanics. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/43 "2024-02-25T19:06:49Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > …and is therefore described by the Kerr metric (named after the same Kerr talked about in the video)… I love that Kerr is 89 years old and still doing work like this. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2024, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/44 "2024-02-25T19:11:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, I think that everyone pretty much expects that, once we eventually figure out quantum gravity, it’ll turn out that the core of a black hole has a finite size. What really blew my mind in that video is that there _might_ be a relatively normal region inside the black hole. “Normal” enough that a human could theoretically live in and that meeting the singularity was not necessarily in your future. 🤯 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/45 "2024-02-26T15:47:08Z")
Yeah. That would also explain how we get dumber as we get older. The gentle flux of passing micro black holes sucks down a brain cell or three each time one goes by. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/46 "2024-02-26T20:52:46Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I think micro black holes routinely pass through the Earth and are manifested by the disappearance of keys and socks. I have a theory that there’s a micro black hole in every woman’s purse. They are bottomless, aren’t they? And when you search for your keys/tissues/pills, they are always stuck in that black hole. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/47 "2024-02-26T22:22:20Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Yeah. That would also explain how we get dumber as we get older. The gentle flux of passing micro black holes sucks down a brain cell or three each time one goes by. That might explain all the micro-breweries imploding. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/48 "2024-02-26T22:41:55Z")
My experience is that purses point to one of several pocket universes, each of which is only purse sized. Which pocket universe you access is random. Insert a phone, grab again and you pull out a makeup case. Grab a money clip, put it back, next time it’s a bundle of receipts. If you want the keys, you simply have to keep trying until you succeed. Etc. Perhaps there is some way to control the selected universe via conscious effort, but it has eluded me so far. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/49 "2024-02-26T22:58:10Z")
Mmh, maybe I have to revise my grand purse theory 🤔. Yours sounds very plausible, too. Maybe we can work out a grand _unified_ purse theory. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/50 "2024-02-27T02:12:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Either I just pulled off a really great whooshing allusion, or you pulled off a really great whoosh. I’m not sure which. 😉 It’s both. It’s Schrödinger’s Whoosh! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/51 "2024-02-27T16:35:06Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > It’s Schrödinger’s Whoosh! The sound of air running into a black hole. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2024, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839/52 "2024-02-27T23:26:06Z")
I’m only worried about black holes to the degree I’m also worried about the odds of being launched into the sun [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-black-holes-frighten-you/997839.md?page=2)