A Beginner's Guide to Learning About Black Holes

[Owen-]

Does anyone know where I might find a good beginners guide to black holes?

I know its a big topic to start from scratch - but I'm a quick learner.

 

[Wallace]

What is your current level of education? There are textbooks that I could recommend, but you'd need University maths to be able to understand them. Black holes are a prediction of relativity so to really understand them you first need to understand relativity, which requires quite a bit of pre-requisite physics and maths knowledge.

On the other hand if you haven't got that knowledge yet, you can still get a decent qualitative understanding of black holes, but the appropriate references to point you towards would be different. Let's us know you current level and we can give you better advice.

 

[Riogho]

Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip S. Thorne

 

[Owen-]

Im not at uni just yet sadly. I know bits about relativity but not much - so I am guessing i should start there first - Any links to sites, or good books on relativity then? (thanks Riogho anyway)

Cheers

 

[George Jones]

Im not at uni just yet sadly. I know bits about relativity but not much - so I am guessing i should start there first - Any links to sites, or good books on relativity then? (thanks Riogho anyway)

Cheers

Try General Relativity from A to B by Robert Geroch.

 

[pseudo]

Try General Relativity from A to B by Robert Geroch.

i have heard about hawking radiation but want to know that vat exactly happens at the event horizon that emits hawking radiation ?

 

[George Jones]

i have heard about hawking radiation but want to know that vat exactly happens at the event horizon that emits hawking radiation ?

A simplification of what happens is given https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=620350&postcount=4".

 

[smallphi]

Im not at uni just yet sadly. I know bits about relativity but not much - so I am guessing i should start there first - Any links to sites, or good books on relativity then? (thanks Riogho anyway)

Cheers

If you know calculus (derivatives, differentials, integrals) and want to actually be able to solve problems not just read some popular fluff, the two most appropriate books to start with are

Spacetime Physics, Taylor and Wheeler - covers special relativity, spacetime without gravity
Exploring Black Holes, Taylor and Wheeler - covers black holes which are just a single chapter in general relativity, doesn't use tensors at all

 

[aauaphycist]

Does anyone knows where i can get tutorials for this course I'm doing in my physics major, THEORETICAL MECHANICS?

 

[chroot]

Look into Schutz' "A Short Course in General Relativity." It's very readable by anyone with experience with basic calculus. By the end of it you'll have a much deeper, mathematically-supported understanding of black holes.

- Warren