The
Physics
behind
the
Schwarzschild
Radius
First
of
all,
the
equation
for
which
Schwarzschild
solved
Einstein's
equations
of
General
Relativity
is
as
follows,
This
equation
shows
that
the
Schwarzschild
Radius,
or
rs, is equal to twice
the Gravitiational constant (G=6.67x10^-11 N(m/kg)^2) multiplied by the
mass of
the object, and divided by the speed of light
(c=3x10^8 m/s) squared. As the Schwarzschild Radius relies only on an
objects mass, every object has an associated
Schwarzschild Radius.
So, lets find
a few Schwarzschild Radius' that are easy to relate to,
An average human has a mass of about 70kg, so by entering
that into the equation for the Schwarzschild radius, we get:
Which is equal to 1.04x10^-25
meters. or .1 yoctometer.
For the Earth, the equation would be:
So the Schwarzschild Radius of
the Earth is ~.009 meters.
At 9mm,
we really
shouldn't be worried about the Earth collapsing into
a black hole. So, using the equation for the Schwarzschild radius, its
pretty easy to see that it requires a lot of mass to have a
realistic point that an object can be compressed to so as to create a
gravitational singularity. As another example, the Schwarzschild radius
of the sun is around 3 kilometers. This should also show just how
incredibly dense an object becomes for it to collapse under the force
of its own gravity.
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