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What about the Logical 2012 Information article that says it would take more than a billion years for a micro-Black Hole to absorb even one gram of matter?

There are two major flaws in that article, either one of which is sufficient to blow a gaping Black Hole in the middle of the logic:

1. That article assumes the Black Hole will absorb only atomic nuclei and ignores the fact that it will also absorb electrons, which are much more plentiful and which offer many more opportunities for the Black Hole to absorb them.
2. That article assumes the Black Hole will absorb matter at a constant rate, ignoring the fact that each time it absorbs any matter, it grows in mass and thus is better able to absorb more matter.

That article also ignores Hawking radiation which, as the author states, is hypothetical and can not presently be experimentally verified. Our model for the growth of the Black Hole does account for Hawking radiation, and even with that steady loss of energy, it shows the Black Hole growing to consume the entire earth in little more than four years. If we change our model to ignore Hawking radiation, it predicts that the Black Hole would have absorbed the entire earth before February of 2009.

If the Black Hole is absorbing electrons, doesn't it acquire an electrical charge? Wouldn't this affect its ability to absorb matter by attracting positively charged atomic nuclei?

Yes and no, but mostly no. Remember that the Black Hole's gravity is so intense that even light can not escape from its event horizon. And photons, the fundamental particles of light, are also the "exchange particle" by which electrical force is exerted. Since photons can not get out of the Black Hole, the electrical charge can not influence any matter outside of the Black Hole. Yes, it can be said to have a charge within it, but that charge can not interact with any matter outside of the Black Hole. Physicists argue about whether a Black Hole that absorbs electrically charged particles truly has an electrical charge or not, but the bottom line is the same: It does not influence matter outside of the Black Hole.

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• Anonymous: This explains a lot.

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