# So ... about black holes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 24, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-about-black-holes/852516 "2020-04-24T18:37:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-about-black-holes/852516/21 "2020-04-27T12:34:27Z")
_“2 plus 2 equals five for large values of 2 and small values of 5.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-about-black-holes/852516/22 "2020-04-27T13:28:25Z")
> [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](#): > > Actually what I was thinking about was this new idea that information is destroyed in a black hole. > > Neither Discovery Channel or Science Channel explain the concept very well so I thought I would ask here. Physical information, like spin, electric charge, angular momentum etc is definitely _trapped_ behind the event horizon. You can’t reach in and get it. Then you have Hawking Radiation, which black holes emit. Now ideally you could reconstruct the original information states of the material inside the black hole based on the emitted radiation. Hawking Radiation however only needs 3 things - black hole mass, charge and angular momentum. Since any 2 black holes with the same values would produce the same radiation you can’t say what went into either. Information is “destroyed”. It’s a paradox and there have been a number of papers developed around resolving or confirming it. My guess is we don’t actually have a sufficiently coherent theory to explain what goes on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-about-black-holes/852516.md?page=1)