Interstellar.... OMG. go watch the movie NOW. *SPOILERS INSIDE*

[sc94597]

bananaking21 said:

ithis said:

Munkeh111 said:

While the ending was definitely nonsense, we have no real idea what happens when you get close to a black hole. We think we know, but we don't

The actual time of the start of the film was quite vague, but generally assumed to be around now?

I actually argued to my wife (a physicist turned designer) that since inside a back whole there's probably no space-time as we can observe it, we don't know what is there. But I highligy doubt that any tranzition would be non destructive. But, when one gets close to the black hole we have a pretty good ideea that gravitational forces would rip things apart (puling considerably stronger the closer a thing is to it, thus a ship that has any length would be pulled apart). 

Timeframe wise I would guess trouble to have started within the next one or two reusable, pilotable space shuttle itterations. 

well since you have a strong understanding on physics, and i honestly dont, always hated it and never really got into it. could you explain relativity in a simple manner to me? is it just a theory or can time really shift like that? (not time travel, but time moving slower for one person than the other depending on location in the universe)

A simple experimental measurement of general relativity's description that higher gravitational fields => slower time are GPS satellites. Because GPS depends on time between pings to measure location the clocks on the satelites must be very accurate. We knew the clocks on the GPS satellite would require corrections because of the lower gravitational force in orbit would mean that time runs faster for them, very slightly. These micro-seconds add up after a while, so there needs to be a correction. If we didn't correct for this time difference GPS would only be accurate to about many hundred feet to even miles. That is one example of time dialation due to a gravitational field.