The priest who predicted black holes – in 1783
John Michell, an 18th-century British clergyman, predicted black holes using Newtonian laws, influencing modern understanding despite initial resistance from physicists like Einstein. Michell's innovative ideas shaped cosmic knowledge.
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In the 18th century, British clergyman John Michell made groundbreaking predictions about black holes using Newtonian laws, long before Einstein. Michell's work included estimating star density, studying earthquakes, and developing a torsion balance to measure Earth's density. He also hypothesized how gravity could affect light, leading to the concept of black holes. Michell's ideas were ahead of his time, but they were overshadowed until the 20th century when they were rediscovered. Despite Michell's foresight, prominent physicists like Einstein initially resisted the idea of black holes. Michell's dark stars concept, though similar to black holes, did not challenge established beliefs like modern black holes do. Michell's innovative thinking and adherence to Newtonian principles paved the way for understanding these enigmatic cosmic phenomena. His contributions to science, though overlooked in his time, have since been recognized for their significance in shaping our understanding of the universe.
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4 comments> According to McCormmach, the existence of invisible stars was a relatively common idea among scientists of the time.
Talk about burying the lede. The life and times of Michell seem irrelevant here, when in fact many were calculating the idea of stars so heavy they would recapture their own light. And they were calculating this based on an incorrect principle of light-as-massive-particles. And these dark stars did not behave at all as black holes do according to modern theories.
So, black holes were not in fact predicted by British clergyman John Michell. This could have been an interesting article if it hadn't tried to force its deceptive headline.
Every old theory was sort of right if you just ignore all the ways it was wrong and interpret it very liberally.
The more gravity, the larger the escape velocity.
But there's a maximum speed in the universe, the speed of light.
If a body has so much mass that the escape velocity is higher than the speed of light, you got a black hole.
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