PHYSICS I: GRAVITY

Hello class, and welcome to today’s lesson. Have you ever wondered what makes the universe around you work? Wondered what forces are in place right now on all of you, as we talk? Today we take our attention and turn it to the concept of gravity. That’s right class – today is a lesson in physics.

Gravity, or gravitation, is the force that connects every physical being and object in existence. All things with a measurable mass gravitate towards each other. Even light is affected by gravity. All forms of mass and energy simultaneously cause gravitation and are affected by gravitation.

In theory, gravity is infinite, with no maximum distance ever noted, although it’s effects do grow weaker with distance. That is why gravity exists across all the known universe, across all of space and all the stars and planets in it.

Gravity is such a wonderful thing. You can see it in everything, and it’s effects vary so much. Remember Isaac Newton and his apple? Standard earth gravity of 1 G. Head up into space and you move closer to 0 G. Spin really fast in a centrifuge and you move higher in the G-force scale. All these different measurements of gravity are all on and around earth, measured by humans.

Sometimes gravity is or becomes stronger than the mass it is being caused by. This is known as gravitational collapse. When a star undergoes gravitational collapse, that is one way that a black hole can be formed. A black hole being an area of spacetime that has such strong gravity that nothing can escape from it.

A black hole is often referred to as a dark star.

Leave that page open on your books for just a second.

Let’s go back to the start of the lesson when we first considered gravity. The way gravity works is that things of different masses fall at a constant speed. Drop a football and a bowling ball from the top of Blackpool Tower and they will hit the ground at the same time, although the bowling ball, due to its higher mass, will likely make a bigger crater in the floor.

And that is the problem with Darkstar, a being so weighed down with the life forces of all those he has murdered in the pits that his mass has reached almost critical pitch and he approaches the ground with a G-Force never seen before on earth!

Look to your book again on the page about black holes. You’ll see just at the bottom of the page that a single mass black hole – a single mass DARKSTAR – would pull somewhere in the region of 153 trillion Gs. Imagine a mass crashing into earth at 153 trillion Gs!

And that, class, is your homework for the week, and indeed the homework for Darkstar himself. Weighed down with the mass of those he has killed, how long do you think he can survive before he is pulled apart by his own gravity?

I’d suggest a starting point close to home. Maybe even the 2nd of July.

Class dismissed!