Understanding Wormholes & Black Holes: An Exploration by Ed

[EdLeMarchant]

A classic topic, however I am new to the physics realm and i would like some help into understanding it. I have just finished reading "An Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene "Six Easy Pieces" by Richard Feynman "A History Of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. And across these books i could not find a suitable explanation as to how black holes have the capability of creating a shortcut through space. A theory i came up with this morning is that the only way one can travel through said shortcut, they must travel/enter through the 4th dimension. Please help me understand this. Recommendations to Web links and Books with explanations would be nice!

Thank you. Ed

 

[craigi]

A classic topic, however I am new to the physics realm and i would like some help into understanding it. I have just finished reading "An Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene "Six Easy Pieces" by Richard Feynman "A History Of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. And across these books i could not find a suitable explanation as to how black holes have the capability of creating a shortcut through space. A theory i came up with this morning is that the only way one can travel through said shortcut, they must travel/enter through the 4th dimension. Please help me understand this. Recommendations to Web links and Books with explanations would be nice!

Thank you. Ed

This isn't really Quantum Physics. It's General Relativity. Start by looking up the Einstein-Rosen bridge on Wikipedia if you have further questions about it then try asking in the GR subfoum.

 

[Dr. Courtney]

I don't think there is physical evidence for anything such as a wormhole. They are a creation of the imagination of science fiction writers.

 

[craigi]

I don't think there is physical evidence for anything such as a wormhole. They are a creation of the imagination of science fiction writers.

It was actually Wheeler who first used the term 'wormhole'. We still have no evidence for the exotic matter required to create one at macroscopic scale.

 

[georgir]

In some way the space inside a black hole can be considered an entirely different "universe" and the black hole is a one-way tunnel between ours and the other "universe".

Other more "practical" two-way wormholes could exist in special types of spacetime geometries, but I think they would not involve black holes.

 

[PeterDonis]

across these books i could not find a suitable explanation as to how black holes have the capability of creating a shortcut through space.

They don't. There is an idealized solution to the Einstein Field Equation, which describes an "eternal" black hole (one that exists forever, alone in the universe, and never gains or loses any mass), and includes a sort of "wormhole"; but nothing can pass through the wormhole (since doing so would require moving faster than light).

In any real black hole, formed by gravitational collapse of matter, there is no "wormhole" region in the solution at all, so those features of the idealized solution I described above don't apply anyway.