Yes, it comes directly from Einstein's theory. But it was not he who solved his equations. I do not know who was first to notice what happened to the time coordinate inside a black hole.

As far as causes of the non-existence of relativistic time, who can say. It certainly is not the theory or Einstein. The theory just says what happens under a given set of conditions. So the causes lie in the setting up of the conditions. In the case of a black hole, it is known to be the collapse of a star that is 2 or more times more massive than our sun.

But more accurately, time does not really cease to exist inside a black hole. Rather it becomes real, whereas outside the black hole it is imaginary. So one interpetation of the theoretical solution, after all it's all just a play on words, is that time exists inside the black hole but not outside.

Afterall, time is invisible. It's really just a mathematical concept that we have all come to accept. In the most interesting approach to understanding time in high energy physics, it's just an approximation to some microscopic processes.

• Re: Re: Is that a region or a blackhole? - richard - November 26, 2000 - 19:31 UTC