Ben McKenzie: the Man in the Lab Coat

Man in the Lab Coat reader and friend Dan posed a great question in the comments of my last post: assuming an astronaut was immortal, would they experience an infinite amount of time while falling into a black hole?

The tricky part about this is time dilation. To an outside observer, once the astronaut passes beyond the event horizon she can no longer be observed, and theoretically takes an infinite amount of time to fall in – we’ll never hear from her again. But for the astronaut herself, time proceeds as normal – and it takes her a finite amount of time to fall into the black hole, or at least, to fall far enough past the event horizon that she is spaghettified. I also pointed out that no form of immortality save being unaffected by gravity could save you from this fate – and if you were unaffected by gravity, you wouldn’t be falling in in the first place! So the answer is no.

Note, too, that this whole scenario is only feasible if it’s a supermassive black hole – for smaller black holes, an astronaut would be spaghettified long before crossing the event horizon.

While checking my facts, I came across a fascinating idea – that it’s possible to find a “sweet spot” of acceleration that maximises that finite time before you are destroyed. This study can be found in a paper from last year titled “No Way Back: Maximizing survival time below the Schwarzschild event horizon“, written by two Australian physicists, Geraint F. Lewis and Juliana Kwan from the University of Sydney. A great summary of the article can be found in the Universe Today blog.

Ben McKenzie, the Man in the Lab Coat, makes two appearances in August for National Science Week!

First, he returns to Melbourne Museum for Not the Nobel Prize on Friday, August 22. Following on from last year’s hit show, Ben will join fellow a panel of fellow comedians as they pit their wits against actual scientists to sort science fact from science fiction.

And, from August 22 to 24, Ben launches a new show, A Brief History of A Brief History of Time, at the Royal Society of Victoria. He’ll prove you don’t need 12 degrees to understand Stephen Hawking’s great unread classic, A Brief History of Time.

Check out the show page for more details, and visit the National Science Week web site to see what else is happening in Melbourne and all round Australia.

Come to this fundraiser and help Ben’s friends Mr. Al and Mr. Nick get to the Adelaide Fringe next year, where they will once again share a venue with the Man in the Lab Coat.

Even if you don’t give two figs for Mr. Al and Mr. Nick, come see the Man in the Lab Coat audaciously attempt to summarize A Brief History of Time in under 15 minutes! Plus I won’t be the only one performing; you can also see such local comedy luminaries as Lawrence Leung, Andrew McClelland, Courtney Hocking, Scott Pollard, Jess Moir and, of course, Mr. Al and Mr. Nick.

When: Thursday 15th December
Where: Upstairs at Vibe On Smith, 123 Smith Street, Collingwood
Doors: 7:30pm Show: 8pm
Cost: $10

Ben appears in the latest issue of Australian Physics in coverage of the Melbourne Physics Forum, where he portrayed a young Albert Einstein for the crowd.