8B40.10 - Black Holes

Credit: DLR, Ute Kraus
Credit: DLR, Ute Kraus
Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
Code Number:
8B40.10
Demo Title:
Black Holes
Condition:
Good
Principle:
Warping of Space-Time by Mass
Area of Study:
Stellar Astronomy
Equipment:
Clothes Basket with Rubber Covering, Small Steel Ball, Large Steel Ball, Ping-Pong Ball (Painted, Red & Blue), Ball (Wooden), Ball (Wooden with Holes through Diameter), Vortex Cone on Stand (Small), Vortex Cone on Stand (Large), and Video Camera with Power Supply.
Procedure:

Place the camera looking straight down at the top of the basket.  Place the larger and heavier balls very gently into the basket.  Replacement of the membrane is necessary when it shows undue wear.  Do not leave anything on the membrane during storage as stretching may occur.

The vortex cones need very little work.  Clean them with plastic polish and a soft cloth.  Note that a pretty fair demonstration of an event horizon occurs when the ball seems to stop its descent and rotate in one plane for several seconds just before it falls into the stand.

References:
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  • Michael C. Lo Presto and Rima Meroueh, "How Dense Is a Black Hole?", TPT, Vol. 39, #2, Feb. 2001, p. 84.
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  • Robert W. Brehme, "Inside the Black Hole", AJP, Vol. 45, #5, May 1977, p. 423.
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  • Rachel Berkowitz, "Polarized Light Shows Hot Gas Swirling Around a Galactic Core", Physics Today, Vol. 74, #6, June 2021, p. 16.
  • Charles Day, "A Sharper View of our Galaxy's Black Hole", Physics Today, Vol. 69, #2, Feb. 2016, p. 18.
  • Georgi Dvali, "Quantum Black Holes", Physics Today, Vol. 66, #1, Jan. 2015, p. 38.
  • Stephen K. Blau, "Hawking Radiation from Fluids", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #12, Dec. 2014, p. 23.
  • Charles Day, "Why Do Active Galactic Nuclei Differ?", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #7, July 2014, p. 17.
  • George Chapline, "A Final Note on the Existence of Event Horizons", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #6, June 2014, p. 10.
  • Suvi Gezari, "The Tidal Disruption of Stars by Supermassive Black Holes", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #5, May 2014, p. 37.
  • Bertram M. Schwarzschild, "Looking For Microscopic Black Holes", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #5, May 2014, p. 16.
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  • Tarun Biswas, "More on Black Holes and Quantum Information", Physics Today, Vol. 66, #11, Nov. 2013, p. 10.
  • Emil Mottola and Ruslan Vaulin, "More on Black Holes and Quantum Information", Physics Today, Vol. 66, #11, Nov. 2013, p. 9.
  • Steven B. Giddings, "Black Holes, Quantum Information, and the Foundations of Physics", Physics Today, Vol. 66, #4, Apr. 2013, p. 30.
  • Daniel Clery, "Darkness Made Visible", Science, Vol. 366, # 6472, Dec. 20, 2019, p. 1434.
  • Tuan Do, Aurelien Hees, Andrea Ghez, Gregory D. Martinez, Devin S. Chu, Siyao Jia, Shoko Sakai, Jessica R. Lu, Abhimat K. Gautam, Kelly Kosmo O’Neil, Eric E. Becklin, Mark R. Morris, Keith Matthews, Shogo Nishiyama, Randy Campbell, Samantha Chappell, Zhuo Chen, Anna Ciurlo, Arezu Dehghanfar, Eulalia Gallego-Cano, Wolfgang E. Kerzendorf, James E. Lyke, Smadar Naoz, Hiromi Saida, Rainer Schödel, Masaaki Takahashi, Yohsuke Takamori, Gunther Witzel, and, Peter Wizinowich, "Relativistic Redshift of the Star S0-2 Orbiting the Galactic Center Supermassive Black Hole", Science, Vol. 365, #6454, Aug. 2019, p. 664.
  • Shingo Hirano, Takashi Hosokawa, Naoki Yoshida, and Rolf Kuiper, "Supersonic Gas Streams Enhance the Formation of Massive Black Holes in the Early Universe", Science, Vol. 357, #6358, Sept. 2017, p. 1375.
  • Adrian Cho, "Space Ripples May Untangle Black Hole Tango", Science, Vol. 356, #6341, June 2017, p. 895.
  • Katie Peek, "How It Works: Death By Black Hole", Popular Science, Vol. 287, #4, Apr. 2015, p. 38.
  • Kate Baggaley, "What Escapes a Black Hole", Popular Science, Vol. 286, #3, Mar. 2014, p. 26.
  • Physics History, "January 1965: Roger Penrose's Seminal Proof of Black Holes", APS News, Vol. 30, #1, Jan. 2021, p. 2.
  • Sophia Chen, "First Black Hole Image: In A Nutshell", APS News, Vol. 28, #6, June 2019, p. 7.
  • "Twirling Black Holes Caught in the Act", APS News, Vol. 26, #8, Aug/Sept. 2017, p. 1, 6.
  • S.W. Hawking, "#9, The Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes", Scientific American Cosmology +1, p. 74. See the Lecture Demo Reference Library in Rm. 58 for this reference.
  • Kip S. Thorne, "# 8, The Search for Black Holes", Scientific American Cosmology +1, Dec. 1974, p. 61. See the Lecture Demo Reference Library in Rm. 58 for this reference.
  • "S-075. VORTX Funnel Coin Collector", DICK and RAE Physics Demo Notebook, 1993.
  • "S-065. Garbage Bag on Trash Can", DICK and RAE Physics Demo Notebook, 1993.
  • M-822. Orbital Simulation: Garbage Bag-VORTX-Ball&String", DICK and RAE Physics Demo Notebook, 1993.
  • "Black Holes", Secrets of the Universe, International Master Publishers.
  • Isaac Asimov, "The Dead-End Middle", Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, p. 122 - 132.
  • Isaac Asimov, "Beyond the Night Sky", The Roving Mind, p. 177 - 180.
  • Robert Ehrlich, "B.1. Gravity and Curved Space-Time", Turning the World Inside Out and 174 Other Simple Physics Demonstrations, p. 13 - 17.
  • "Heaviest Black Hole", Guinness Book of World Records, 2003, p. 70.

Disclaimer: These demonstrations are provided only for illustrative use by persons affiliated with The University of Iowa and only under the direction of a trained instructor or physicist.  The University of Iowa is not responsible for demonstrations performed by those using their own equipment or who choose to use this reference material for their own purpose.  The demonstrations included here are within the public domain and can be found in materials contained in libraries, bookstores, and through electronic sources.  Performing all or any portion of any of these demonstrations, with or without revisions not depicted here entails inherent risks.  These risks include, without limitation, bodily injury (and possibly death), including risks to health that may be temporary or permanent and that may exacerbate a pre-existing medical condition; and property loss or damage.  Anyone performing any part of these demonstrations, even with revisions, knowingly and voluntarily assumes all risks associated with them.