# I think I legit have a chance at a PhD in black hole theory. Everything is well



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

Today I went in the research office to ask a few questions. I am going to a forum and I was wondering how much content I needed and I was blown away by the fact that I have had a great amount of work done compared to everyone else. 

I know you guys know of my dream of becoming an astronaut, but I never felt so goddamn close to it. I have my 4.0 semester from previously, my grades in general are fantastic especially in my high level physics classes. My recs are great and my professors really spoke highly of me. My research experience I found out trumps the majority of physics students. The GRE is the final thing and I have confidence I can do well.

I know you have to be at the top of the top to even get in black hole theory. But looking at my stats and everything I've done...I am at the top of the top compared to a lot of other undergrads. 

I'm working on them and I can't say for sure, but things are looking really good and I think I'll definitely be competitive for some PhD program. 

And it makes me feel like on top of the world. All the work I'm doing doesn't feel like work. It feels something so close to me and I wanted so long can happen and I don't want this feeling to ever go away. It truly feels like I can live my dream of becoming an astronaut it's an absolutely unbelievable feeling.

Wish me luck guys, I'm on the cusp of it all, but it looks like the work will pay off.


----------



## stiletto (Oct 26, 2013)

I have no relation to you but I can't help but feel proud and excited for you.

Congrats!! All that hard work is paying off!! You don't need luck. Just keep being you!

When you've become an astronaut, don't forget little old us on the forums!!


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

stiletto said:


> I have no relation to you but I can't help but feel proud and excited for you.
> 
> Congrats!! All that hard work is paying off!! You don't need luck. Just keep being you!
> 
> When you've become an astronaut, don't forget little old us on the forums!!


Aww thanks Stiletto! I know we haven't interacted that much on the forum but I really did appreciate a lot of the times we did


----------



## stiletto (Oct 26, 2013)

Nightmaker81 said:


> Aww thanks Stiletto! I know we haven't interacted that much on the forum but I really did appreciate a lot of the times we did


Ladies and gents will be like:


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

stiletto said:


> Ladies and gents will be like:


 Because I've been so obsessed with being an astronaut that I have been working out a lot to become physically fit that I started becoming a lot more physically attractive and I just feel healthy ya know?

This is current me: 
http://i.imgur.com/hRZ2S6v.png

And I'm really not trying to go on hours about how awesome I am, but damn...after being told for years what I had was a delusion and seeing some fruit too it. It's like nothing in the world.

Alright I'll shut up, I'm just really overjoyed right now


----------



## stiletto (Oct 26, 2013)

That said, what can you tell us about black hole theory? I know it will be hard, but please try to talk about it with the laymen. =D


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

stiletto said:


> That said, what can you tell us about black hole theory? I know it will be hard, but please try to talk about it with the laymen. =D


So one of the most interesting and paradoxical things about black holes is the fact it "broke" energy conservation for awhile. And the crazy thing is that you didn't even need advanced physics to prove it. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_information_paradox

So in quantum mechanics, a wave function is in an eigenstate. This is because of the uncertainty principle. You can't fully know the momentum or position of something to the degree of hbar over two. So we can't fully know where a particle is and know its momentum and vice versa.

So to represent it we need to "collapse" the wave function. Because wave functions are really just superpositions and can be translated anywhere. Any measurement will collapse the wave function and then we can pull out an eigenvalue. That's our value for the physical quantity EG: the eigenvalue of our momentum eigenvector is our momentum.

If something goes into blackholes it can't collapse. It'll get destroyed. Yet blackholes radiate and release energy. THat's physically impossible and violates conservation of energy.

We thought it did for a long time but string theory showed it did not break conservation. All the math adds up, but string theory also implies we live in an n number dimensions(I think we're currently at 11).

Not saying string theory is false, but in the end it's all math. There's no experiment behind it and blackholes in general are creating these insane physical implications. They truly are the mysteries of the universe and for the longest time we thought they defied quantum mechanics, and it still could potentially could.


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

But I guess in non linear algebra speak our information is essentially erased when it enters a black hole. Yet Hawking radiation releases energy. So it's 0 energy going in, energy coming out and that breaks conservation


----------



## stiletto (Oct 26, 2013)

If something "breaks a law" of science, I don't think it's rather controversial or mind-blowing at all. What we know can never just be set into concrete and become unchangeable.


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

stiletto said:


> If something "breaks a law" of science, I don't think it's rather controversial or mind-blowing at all. What we know can never just be set into concrete and become unchangeable.


Conservation of energy is really huge though. We do so many calculations based on that in the real world that if it were to break there is some underlying thing we don't know that's really crucial and like pretty much all the physics we know since the history of newton is wrong. Just all of it. Conservation of energy breaking is almost as mind blowing as saying gravity is breaking and gravity isn't holding us down and it's a group of martians 

But it was fixed. I can't go into string theory but what string theory pretty much implies is that the mass that enters a blackhole does infact give it energy to radiate. There's a lot of intricacies in it, but conservation of energy still holds and all the math adds up.

We won't be able to go into a black hole and try it out, but if the holds out I don't see any reason to disagree with it at this point.


----------



## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

@Nightmaker81

Actually conservation of energy/mass states that you cannot destroy either but you can change it from one form to the other: Even protons decay given enough time in theory, they don't disappear so much as convert to energy.

E=MC^2.


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

RobynC said:


> @_Nightmaker81_
> 
> Actually conservation of energy/mass states that you cannot destroy either but you can change it from one form to the other: Even protons decay given enough time in theory, they don't disappear so much as convert to energy.
> 
> E=MC^2.


Yeah that's fine but the issue is quantum mechanically. For a wave function to be measured you need to collapse it and you cannot collapse it the wave function is being destroyed in the blackhole: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function_collapse

If you're not able to reduce it to a single eigenstate you can't observe it/measure it and essentially that information is lost so it is 0 energy going on. But there is energy coming out and that's how the whole issue of Hawking radiation came into play


----------



## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

I rather doubt the PhD. will actually be in "Black Hole Theory." More likely it would be in Theoretical Astrophysics.


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

tanstaafl28 said:


> I rather doubt the PhD. will actually be in "Black Hole Theory." More likely it would be in Theoretical Astrophysics.


Yeah that'll be the official heading of it, but I want my main focus to be blackholes and I think my knowledge on physics in general+my motivation can make me competitive for it


----------



## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

Nightmaker81 said:


> Yeah that'll be the official heading of it, but I want my main focus to be blackholes and I think my knowledge on physics in general+my motivation can make me competitive for it


You'll have to write your doctoral thesis on _something_. It seems like you know the general subject for your topic.


----------



## Haba Aba Daba Aba (Mar 8, 2015)

"Hilbert's mistake spawned the black hole and the community of theoretical physicists continues to elaborate on this falsehood, with a hostile shouting down of any and all voices challenging them. "


----------



## RantnRave (May 1, 2015)

Nightmaker81 said:


> Yeah that's fine but the issue is quantum mechanically. For a wave function to be measured you need to collapse it and you cannot collapse it the wave function is being destroyed in the blackhole:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function_collapse
> 
> If you're not able to reduce it to a single eigenstate you can't observe it/measure it and essentially that information is lost so it is 0 energy going on. But there is energy coming out and that's how the whole issue of Hawking radiation came into play


As with most discoveries, I'm sure you'll ascertain where this energy is coming from. It's likely that it is not being "created" so to speak but rather entering or espousing from some unseen phenomenon. 

I read before that Hawking was stating that the minute particles which are created and destroy one another are separated near a black hole. Meaning the + or - charged particle is pulled in and the other is repelled thus showing energy creation.

I'm nowhere near your level so understand I'm humbled by any answer you can offer.


----------



## joshman108 (Apr 14, 2014)

Nightmaker81 said:


> We won't be able to go into a black hole


Don't tell that to Dr. Cooper.

Seriously though, pretty cool. 4.0 and having a chance of being an astronaut? I feel like I've stepped into an alternate reality. I can barely get my homework done....


----------



## Father of Dragons (May 7, 2012)

Congrats man, it does sound like you are on the Astronaut career-track. Not many people can say that. Do you have any tips for us mortal students? How does one pull off a 4.0 with an advanced physics course load?


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

Father of Dragons said:


> Congrats man, it does sound like you are on the Astronaut career-track. Not many people can say that. Do you have any tips for us mortal students? How does one pull off a 4.0 with an advanced physics course load?


Thanks man! My honest advice is sleep. I feel it's something that's taken for granted, but sleep is as important as drinking enough water and avoiding it is really detrimental. 

That does require discipline though and I guess just trying to discipline yourself is the #1 priority. Make sure you can beat the "wall of laziness" and just do it and realize you are still human. If you truly want to push yourself to the limits you have to do everything in your power to make sure your body is healthy(diet, sleep a lot, make sure you're exercising etc).

Many times I've seen people get slowed down because they're tired and I think sleep/health really is the #1 factor for approaching things like this and making sure you're meticulous in keeping your body on top of things.


----------



## Father of Dragons (May 7, 2012)

Thanks, I'll try to focus on getting some more sleep from now on. It's always been my weak spot - I average 6-7 hours a night generally. That would be ok if that's all I needed but I don't think it is, I usually feel tired half the day. Guess I need to leave a little willpower in the tank in the evening to make sure I can get myself to bed!


----------



## Nightmaker81 (Aug 17, 2013)

Father of Dragons said:


> Thanks, I'll try to focus on getting some more sleep from now on. It's always been my weak spot - I average 6-7 hours a night generally. That would be ok if that's all I needed but I don't think it is, I usually feel tired half the day. Guess I need to leave a little willpower in the tank in the evening to make sure I can get myself to bed!


Haha man it's really just all encompassing health. I think sleep tends to be the most important though. Getting 8 hours makes you have more energy throughout the day, and that energy lets you improve other aspects. 

Like for an example, say you want to cook a healthy meal but you feel way too tired, so you order a pizza instead. A common situation, but if you had a bit more energy from sleep, you'd be able to cook that healthy meal, and little by little those habits add up and you become healthier. 

This is me talking from personal experience, but the feeling of being healthy and not being bogged down or slowed down is extremely addicting. The satisfaction from eating a big chocolate cake is nothing compared to being able to rise up every morning and feeling great to be alive. 

It's a very disciplined lifestyle, but for me it was well worth it. I don't eat junk food, I hardly play videogames/watch Netflix anymore, most of my days even weekends are just purely working and I can see why it's not an ideal lifestyle for every personality, but even if I wasn't trying to be an astronaut, just the ability to feel like I'm in my most sharpest/best physical state is a great one.


----------



## Dante Scioli (Sep 3, 2012)

Every time I see "I think I legit have a chance at a PhD in black..." my mind autocompletes it to "I think I legit have a chance at a PhD in _*black magic*_."


----------

