I'm speculating here but this seems like a plausable explanation for where energy goes.

From a quantum physics standpoint there is a particle/energy relationship between light for instance. Light, which is energy, can be viewed as either energy or as a particle, i.e. a photon. In the case of light, once the particle passes the horizon of a black hole it eventually contributes to the gravitational mass of the black hole, in essence expanding the horizon radius of the black hole. Another way to look at this is the particle expands the gravitational attraction of the black hole. Of course this assumes you buy into the theory that photons have mass which isn't the popular theory.

An alternative view is that as the particle approaches the point source singularity, it actually slows down from a value of c to something less from an external reference. Since the energy of the particle has some fixed original quantity, either the energy is dissipated or the photon acquires rest mass to satisfy E=mc^2.

• Dissapates into what? - Apinamies/">Apinamies - September 25, 1999 - 00:34 UTC
  • Re: Dissapates into what? - Kev - September 28, 1999 - 15:57 UTC