 Quote by primal schemer
How near would you have to be and how large would gravity have to be for tidal forces to rip you apart??
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That depends on the strength of our various body parts. In the Newtonian approximation, the force is given by
[tex]F_t=\frac{2GMm}{r^3}L[/tex]
where L is the length of our body. If the object is a black hole, this goes to:
[tex]F_t=\frac{c^6m}{4G^2M^2}}L[/tex]
at the event horizon. As I said, however, that's only an approximation.
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that when orbiting Jupiter a comet broke apart due to tidal forces. Does this mean that humans could never go too close to Jupiter???
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No, comets are much less tightly bound than humans.