chapter three

Third Lecture: Black Holes
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This Chapter of Stephen Hawking's book talks all about how Black Holes were discovered, who made the significant discoveries and when. In 1783, John Michell, pointed out that a star that was massive and compact would have such a strong gravitational field that light could not escape it. Any light emitted by the star would get dragged back by the stars gravitational force. The chapter then highlights the life cycle of a star in where it it explains the formation and the resistance of black holes. It then speaks of Chandrasekhar and his limit along with many other ideas implemented by scientists.

This chapter would be the first chapter upon which I actually had great difficulty reading. The terminology used in this chapter was not only fresh, but also hard to decipher and piece together. I had to initially research what is a black hole, despite it being given in advanced terms in the book. I discovered that   "A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying." After this information, I was able to further learn and expand my knowledge with the insight and a little bit of background on the subject.