Question about the maximum speed of light and 'weight'

[trash]

Here's a question for you lot to think about.

How do I measure the shape of a black hole?

[spook]

All things in our universe are 3 dimensional, except human ideologues who are single dimensional. That's what a black hole is on this side of the dimensional wall and on the other, who knows. Same with stars, the other end of a black hole in another dimensional universe.

[Uncle Fester]

Here's a question for you lot to think about.

How do I measure the shape of a black hole?

...by becoming one with it!

[lsemmens]

Actually, you don't measure the shape. You can measure the area, or the perimeter, or diameter. A tape measure might work.....

[Uncle Fester]

Actually, you don't measure the shape. You can measure the area, or the perimeter, or diameter. A tape measure might work.....

I don't think we need to measure a tape


You can't measure holes anyway, only what surrounds them. It his case the event horizon that presents itself to us as close to a sphere.

[trash]

So far, no answers

Time to think a bit harder people.
Shape is easily defined. [] this is a square ( ) this is a circle. 0 this is an oval.
In three dimensions, a cube, a sphere and an ellipsoid. Just as a simple example.

Now I can define the differences with precision by measuring their diameters from different angles or positions. Two measurements are all that is needed.

So there are two approaches to asking the question.
The first is to ask what possible shapes can a black hole be ?
The second is how to measure them to prove it.


Here's an easier way to think about the problem.
Two black holes of roughly equal mass are orbiting each other. What shape are they?
Are they both round or are they egg shaped because they are distorted by each others gravity?
If you can measure their shape, then you can determine if they are distorted in some way or not.

It seems very obvious that they should be distorted by the gravitational fields. So how to prove it? Measure their shape.

[Uncle Fester]

You are still here only talking about measuring the event horizon (the region where the hole becomes black for us) from a far away distance and I answered that in my last post:

"...presents itself to us as close to a sphere."

Gravitational effects will obviously distort it from a 'perfect' sphere, where it can become flattened from it's own rotation or assume an egg shape from another object with strong gravitational pull.

What it really looks like when we get very close to it or pass the event horizon was answered with:

" ...by becoming one with it! "

[trash]

Yes, so the point is still how to measure the shape. It's not as impossible as it sounds.
An example is a black hole 500 million light years away, they can measure how big the gap between the event horizon the accretion disk currently is.


Now if the black hole is a point (a singularity), why should the shape of the event horizon change if the singularity is spinning?
Are you sure it's a sphere? Could it be another shape?


Add a layer of complexity to it. Two black holes orbiting each other. Nothing too special about that, each distorts the shape of the other into a teardrop shape.
Again, this is not impossible to measure and determine the shape of each.

And again, now each black hole is rotating, but off axis with the other black hole.
What happens to the precesion of each black hole, it's angular momentum and my favourite part ... tidal effects on the black hole.

Tidal effects on the Earth and Io produce obvious effects, so are there tidal effects on a black hole?