Recent content by Ellie Snyder

Homework Statement Soon astronomers will be imaging the “shadow” of light from the event horizons of black holes. Since black holes are very small, this achievement seems impossible. Nevertheless, it is possible for three reasons: 1. Supermassive black holes have large event horizons. 2. Radio...

So for part b, to find that minimum mass, would I insert the quasar's 10^13 L_sun luminosity into the first equation and solve for M?

Oh duh, ok great, so I'm getting an M of about 132.50 M_sun

Hmm. I believe you but since I was given that formula in the question itself, I think I should use it to answer the question, even if it is off base.

Homework Statement The nuclear reactions in a star’s core are very sensitive to pressure and temperature, so high mass stars have much higher luminosities. The luminosities of massive stars have been observed to obey the following scaling relationship with mass (M): Lstar = (34.2)*M^2.4...

Do you mean give the two terms a common denominator of r^2(r+l)^2, which yields (r^2-(r+l)^2)/(r^2(r+l)^2)? Or do you mean put that entire thing over some common denominator?

I edited to include my initial thought process.

Homework Statement Suppose an object of length “l” is located a distance “r” from a gravitating object of mass “M.” From physics you will learn that the gravitational acceleration is GM/r^2. Derive the difference in gravitational acceleration between distance “r” and distance “r+l” from the...