From: keith@cco.caltech.edu (Keith Allan Schneider)
Subject: Re: The Universe and Black Holes, was Re: 2000 years.....
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 23
NNTP-Posting-Host: punisher.caltech.edu

salem@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Bruce Salem) writes:

>Is this Zeno's Paradox?

No.  Zeno's paradox is resolved by showing that integration or an infinite
series of decreasing terms can sum to a finite result.

>Nothing can get out of a black hole because
>the escape velocity is the speed of light. I don't know how time dialation
>can prevent matter spiraling in from getting to the event horizon. Can any-
>one explain how matter gets in.

Well, suppose a probe emitting radiation at a constant frequency was
sent towards a black hole.  As it got closer to the event horizon, the
red shift would keep increasing.  The period would get longer and longer,
but it would never stop.  An observer would not observe the probe actually
reaching the event horizon.  The detected energy from the probe would keep
decreasing, but it wouldn't vanish.  Exp(-t) never quite reaches zero.

I guess the above probably doesn't make things any more clear, but hopefully
you will get the general idea maybe.

keith
