Re: Singularity Temperature/Infalling material

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 09:49 PM 3/2/01 -0800, Michael Bowen wrote:
> funnel analogy ... event horizon ... GR ... What are your favorite
> summer-reading books on this topic?

1) On the topic of GR in general, everybody should read _The Feynman
Lectures on Physics_ volume II chapter 42.  It's a classic.  The first part
of the chapter requires only high-school geometry.  Most of the rest
requires only high-school physics.  I remember that the bug-on-a-hot-plate
made a tremennnndous impression on me.

2) On the topic of black holes in particular, everything I know I got from
reading Misner/Thorne/Wheeler, and from talking to people.  MTW is not
exactly what most people consider summer reading, and you have to be
careful not to drop it on your foot.  But you can learn quite a bit by
reading chapter 1 and then chapter 31.  Just ignore the equations the first
time through;  the words and the pictures will tell you what the issues are.

In particular, chapter 31 lays out the answers to the questions that
started this thread.

3) More in the category of best-seller / summer reading is _Black Holes and
Time Warps_.  No equations, inimitable Kip Thorne style.

4) Also in that category is Hawking, _A Brief History of Time_.

5) You won't find the bug-sucker funnel analogy written up anywhere;  it's
something I invented back when I was 15, during a N-hour bus ride.  A bunch
of us were coming home from hearing Kip give a public lecture, on a bus
that somebody had chartered for the purpose.  There were some interesting
characters on that bus.