Introduction

The Hole Man

"The Hole Man" is a short criminal story written by Larry Niven, which won a Hugo Award. It deals with a group of scientists, who discover an abandoned alien base on Mars. On this base there's a communicative device, which sents out gravitational waves using a mini black hole. Lear tries to figure out how the communicator device works. He and Captain Childrey can't stand each other. Captain Childrey doesn't believe in Lear's hypothesis that there's a mini black hole inside the alien's communicator. Finally Lear shows this fact by deactivating the electromagnetic fields, and the mini black hole drops right through Captain Childrey's body. Childrey dies an hour later.

Imagine this is the alien base on Mars!
Original artwork by Paul Hudson; July 12, 1990. Image Number: AC90-0405-4.
Courtesy of NASA Ames Imaging Library Server.

We'll use the black hole inside the communicator for example calculations throughout our web pages. We find it suitable for us to use it as a framework for our calculations illustrating various effects of a black hole.

Note: Niven wrote this story (copyright 1973) before Hawking radiation was discovered in March 1974. So he couldn't know that not only a black hole's gravitational force can be deadly, but also its radiation. "The Hole Man" is a very well researched story as our calculations will show.

[Reference: Niven, Larry. "The Hole Man." Anglog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine. (c) 1973.]

"Black holes aren't black - After Hawking they shine!"
Presented by Angie, Matthias and Thorsten
Team C007571,ThinkQuest Internet Challenge 2000.
Last modified: 2000-08-02.