After the big-bang, tiny black holes may have formed. If one with a mass of 1 x 10^11 kg (and a radius of only 1 x 10^-16 m) reached Earth, at what distance from your head would its gravitational pull on you match that of the Earth's?

1 Answer
Aug 31, 2016

Your head would need to be about 0.82 metres from the black hole to experience 1g.

Explanation:

The acceleration you would experience is:

a=(GM)/r^2

Where M=10^11kg is the mass of the black hole, G=6.674m^2kg^(-1)s^(-2) is the gravitational constant and r is the distance from the black hole.

The acceleration due to gravity on Earth is a=9.81ms^(-2).

So, to experience 1g of acceleration, thee distance is:

r^2=(GM)/a=6.67/9.81

This gives r=0.82m.

Being so close to a black hole puts you in the region where tidal effects can occur. At r=0.6m, a=18.5ms^(-2). At r=0.4m, a=41.7ms^(-2).

Incidentally, the Schwarzschild radius for a black hole is given by:

r=(GM)/c^2

Where c is the speed of light. A black hole with a mass of 10^11kg has a radius of 7.4*10^(-17)m, which is slightly smaller than 10^-16m.