{"id":1022,"date":"2011-04-27T22:34:37","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T02:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/ltt\/?p=1022"},"modified":"2011-05-09T15:14:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-09T19:14:39","slug":"and-yet-here-we-are-beyond-the-laws-of-physics-welcome-onboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/?p=1022","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd yet, here we are.  Beyond the laws of physics.  Welcome onboard.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To begin this post, we feel it is only appropriate to share the Doctor&#8217;s own views on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/phenommark.xanga.com\/videos\/ffca9293530\/\">Physics<\/a>. \u00a0Click the link. \u00a0You won&#8217;t be disappointed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Laser Weapons:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Doctor Who, we frequently see the race of aliens called the Daleks arrive on the scene and start yelling \u201cExterminate!\u201d and shooting people with their laser-like \u201cgunsticks\u201d. \u00a0Basically, they shoot their victims with a blue beam which temporarily exposes the victim\u2019s skeleton (as seen in the screenshot for the video below). <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Daleks Exterminating!!\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B6t692kpqhs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\u00a0The likelihood of the skeleton actually being visible for this brief period of time is obviously very low, however such laser weapons are not impossible at all.\u00a0 The technology to make them just does not exist yet. Lasers are what Michio Kaku refers to as a Class 1 Impossibility.\u00a0 They are impossible today but do not violate known laws of physics, so they might become possible someday (Kaku, 2008, p. xvii).\u00a0 They cannot currently exist due to the lack of an appropriate portable power source and a stable lasing material.\u00a0 Currently, the only way to provide enough power to run one of these would be to use a miniature hydrogen bomb, but that runs a high risk of exploding you along with your target. \u00a0Ray guns are possible, but must be connected to a power supply via cable.\u00a0 Advances in nanotechnology provide some hope that laser weapons will become possible in the future by creating tiny power packs capable of delivering massive amounts of power (Kaku, 2008, p. 41).\u00a0 Moreover, once scientists are able to power these handheld lasers, they must then deal with the problems that will arise during real-world usage.\u00a0 When a laser is directed through any atmosphere, \u201cwater vapour molecules, water droplets and carbon dioxide molecules [soak] up the beam, causing localised heating along the beam path which [causes] the beam to dissipate\u201d (Kopp 2008).\u00a0 This is what is known as \u201cthermal blooming\u201d and it just gets worse the more power you put behind the laser.\u00a0 In fact, all High Energy Laser (HEL) weapons have great difficulty passing through clouds, dust or other such obstructions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time Travel:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To start off our discussion of parallel worlds, it seems appropriate to provide a brief explanation of time travel.\u00a0 It is what Kaku calls a Class 2 Impossibility: something that hovers near the edge of our current knowledge of physics which might be possible, but only many years in the future (Kaku, 2008, p. xvii).\u00a0 It is consistent with the known laws of universe and no matter how hard physicists try, they cannot seem to come up with any reason why it could not work. \u00a0(Kaku, 2008, p. 242).\u00a0 It is allowable according to the general theory of relativity as long as you do not travel back in time to a period before the time machine was built.\u00a0 This is why we have not seen any tourists from the future \u2013 thus answering a common gripe made by doubtful scientists (Gribbin, 2009, p. 30).\u00a0 It would be impossible to travel backwards to a time before the time machine existed; you would make yourself a paradox.\u00a0 This just cannot happen.\u00a0 Another problem that is frequently brought up is known as the Grandmother Paradox: What if you go back in time and kill your own grandmother?\u00a0 There is one simple solution to this: you can\u2019t do this because it hasn\u2019t happened.\u00a0 You exist, therefore your grandmother must have lived long enough to have your mother and so on.\u00a0 No matter what you do, you cannot change this because you yourself are incontrovertible proof that you haven\u2019t killed your grandmother.\u00a0 This brings up sticky issues of lack of free-will\/pre-destination, but it does fix the problem.\u00a0 Most importantly, whatever you do has to be <strong>self-consistent<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cTime travelers don\u2019t change the past because they were always part of it\u201d (Gott, 2001, p. 16).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Parallel Worlds:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The idea of parallel worlds used to just be a fun idea to mull over when you were bored, but in 1957, Hugh Everett proposed his \u201cmany worlds\u201d idea and made it into not only a plausible but a highly regarded theory in quantum physics. \u00a0Everett suggested that in an experiment like the one involving Schrodinger\u2019s cat, the wave function does not collapse when someone looks inside the box. \u00a0Instead, since both outcomes are equally likely, the entire Universe splits, or branches.\u00a0 In one branch of reality, the scientist observes a dead cat and in another branch, a living cat. \u00a0In short, \u201cany universe that can exist, does\u201d (Kaku, 2008, p. 244).\u00a0 As Gribbin (2009) explains, \u201cThe best reason for taking the Many Worlds Interpretation seriously is that nobody has ever found any other way to describe the entire Universe in quantum terms\u201d (p. 31). \u00a0In fact, Everett\u2019s idea is so popular that the debate now is not so much about whether these worlds can or do exist, but whether we can actually ever reach them, or if we have decohered from them to such an extent that we can never join them again.<\/p>\n<p>The theory of \u201cdecoherence\u201d was first formulated in 1970 by Dieter Zeh, a German physicist.\u00a0 Zeh pointed out that Schrodinger\u2019s cat cannot be separated from the environment inside the box.\u00a0 Coming into contact with even a single molecule of air inside the box radically affects the cat\u2019s wave function.\u00a0 Suddenly, that wave function splits into two distinct wave patterns that no longer interact: the one for the live cat and the one for the dead cat.\u00a0 That one air molecule forces the dead!cat and live!cat wave functions to permanently separate.\u00a0 This \u201cdecoherence\u201d means that the two wave functions no longer interact because they are no longer vibrating in phase with each other (Kaku, 2005, p. 167).\u00a0 If we add to this Hugh Everett\u2019s \u201cmany worlds\u201d interpretation, then the wave function never collapses; it just keeps splitting and splitting with each new interaction.\u00a0 (Kaku, 2005, p. 168).<\/p>\n<p>What is even more fascinating is the accompanying concept that all of these parallel worlds exist alongside us.\u00a0 Kaku explains that \u201calthough wormholes might be necessary to reach such alternate worlds, these quantum realities exist in the very same room that we live in.\u00a0 They coexist with us wherever we go\u201d (Kaku, 2005, p. 170).\u00a0 \u00a0The reason we cannot see or touch these other worlds is because our wave functions have decohered from them.\u00a0 All of these worlds have very different energy signatures since each is made up of trillions and trillions of atoms.\u00a0 \u201cSince the frequency of these waves is proportional to their energy (by Planck\u2019s law), this means that the waves of each world vibrate at different frequencies and cannot interact anymore.\u00a0 For all intents and purposes, the waves of these various worlds do not interact or influence each other\u201d (Kaku, 2005, p. 170).\u00a0 According to Kaku, and many other sources, communication with and especially travel to any of these parallel worlds should be impossible because we have decohered from them.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the tantalizing proximity of worlds where dinosaurs still exist, \u201ccommunication between the different branches of Everett\u2019s Multi-verse\u2026would be impossible, according to the same equations that describe the existence of such multiple realities\u2026Except for one intriguing possibility\u2026time travel.\u201d (Gribbin, 2009, p. 28).\u00a0 It is this possibility that makes the frequent parallel universe jumping in Doctor Who seem <em>almost<\/em> plausible.\u00a0 A traveler could go back in time down one branch of history and then move forward up an entirely different branch than the one they came from.\u00a0 This means that you could conceivably travel to a parallel universe, but it would be very difficult to arrive in a specific parallel universe (Gribbin, 2009, p. 30).\u00a0 You would have to make all of the miniscule choices and movements that result in whichever universe you\u2019re aiming for \u2013 many of which would be so seemingly unimportant that you would have a very hard time figuring out which tiny insignificant details were actually incredibly significant and which were not.\u00a0 Moreover, it seems almost certain that if you were to time travel and then interact in any way with the environment you travelled to, you would end up moving up a different branch of reality anyway even if you had not planned to (unless you ascribe to the self-consistency theory of time travel in which you cannot really change anything because whatever you will do is whatever you have already done and vice versa).\u00a0 This is a fascinating idea to be revisited in the future when a time machine exists. \u00a0Doctor Who does not address this as a possible method of travelling between parallel universes, instead the show relies on huge disturbances of the entire fabric of space\/time in order to weaken what they conceptualize as the \u201cwalls\u201d between worlds so that the characters can transfer back and forth for a limited period of time.<\/p>\n<p>In the episode \u201cTurn Left,\u201d Donna is transported to a universe in which she turned left instead of right while driving one day and so never met the Doctor.\u00a0 He takes it as a sign of how important she is (or will be) that the universe has formed a whole parallel world around her, even though, as they discuss, parallel worlds are \u201csealed off.&#8221; \u00a0This episode also treats parallel worlds as things that can be made and destroyed. \u00a0When they kill the creature who created the other world, that world then ceases to exist, instead of her just no longer being in it, unlike within Everett&#8217;s &#8220;many worlds&#8221; theory wherein every possible world already exists (\u201cTurn Left\u201d). \u00a0<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Doctor Who- Final scene of Turn Left plus next time trailer\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E7Iy-bZA_TU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In another episode, \u201cArmy of Ghosts,\u201d Rose and the Doctor accidentally end up in the parallel world where her father is still alive and her parents are happily married but they never had a daughter.\u00a0 In this episode, several of the characters even have small, wearable \u201ctransporters\u201d that will take the wearer from one parallel world to the next as long as the breach in time remains open.\u00a0 What is funny about this plot point is that the show\u2019s writers and the character of the Doctor himself are all perfectly frank with the audience that, normally, none of this could be happening, but they go to great lengths to explain that since an alien ship has already caused a breach in time, that breach is now allowing them to subvert the laws of physics for a brief period.\u00a0 Every episode where the Doctor deals with parallel worlds, especially when the plot involves contact between two such worlds, the Doctor clearly explains the impossibility of what is going on and how his actions (or those of the characters around him) are ripping the universe apart in some way or another.\u00a0 When Rose gets stuck in one universe, while the Doctor is still in another, he does his best to say goodbye to her.\u00a0 He explains: \u201cThere\u2019s one tiny little gap in the universe left.\u00a0 Just about to close.\u00a0 And it takes a lot of power to send this projection.\u00a0 I\u2019m in orbit around a supernova. \u00a0I\u2019m burning up a sun just to say goodbye.\u201d\u00a0 He has to appear as a projection.\u00a0 He cannot come through completely to a parallel universe because the \u201cwhole thing would fracture.\u00a0 Two universes would collapse\u201d (\u201cDoomsday\u201d) <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Doctor Who Doomsday Scene 20\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_dX_G0rToew?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So at least the show is giving a tip of the hat to the laws of physics when it says that everyone gets stuck in whichever parallel universe they were in when the breach closed.\u00a0 Though, of course, this does not hold true in the next two seasons when the characters bleed through from one universe to the other anytime the plot needs spicing up.\u00a0 One memorable example of this was when Rose kept popping up in the normal universe to help with things and deliver cryptic messages even though she should have been stuck in the parallel universe.\u00a0 At the end of this plot line, the Doctor once again states that passage between the worlds should be impossible and it will soon be so again because the anomaly for that episode (the Reality Bomb) just stopped affecting space\/time. \u00a0<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Doctor Who 4x13 Journey&#039;s End Rose And Doctor Kiss\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FXmOYDpgEUY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He has just enough time to, once again, say goodbye to Rose forever before saying \u201cWe\u2019ve gotta go.\u00a0 This reality\u2019s sealing itself off.\u00a0 Forever\u201d (\u201cJourney\u2019s End\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>In sum, though Doctor Who has many fantastical gadgets and adventures that seem completely impossible, many of them do have some basis in reality and are at least plausible in terms of quantum physics.\u00a0 Though jumping between parallel worlds is nowhere near as doable as he makes it look, parallel worlds at least can (and probably do) exist.\u00a0 Though handheld laser weapons that expose your skeleton upon impact do not exist, such weapons could very well exist in only a few years, due to the advances of nanotechnology and their impact on the feasibility of portable power sources.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Black Holes and the Possible Impossible Planet<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are several different types of black holes, but for the purposes of this project, we focused on a non-charged, non-rotating black hole, also called a Scharzschild black hole. There was nothing in \u201cThe Impossible Planet\u201d to indicate that the black hole in question was not a Schwarzschild black hole. The essential predicament in the episode is that the Doctor and Rose land themselves on a small planet orbiting around a black hole, and Satan just happens to live there. The Doctor describes the planet as \u201cimpossible\u201d and says that in order to counteract the gravity of the black hole, \u201cyou\u2019d need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of 6 to the power of 6 every 6 seconds\u201d (Jones &amp; Strong, 2006). That sounds really cool, but it\u2019s completely wrong and not even a real thing. The truth is that if they were within the black hole\u2019s event horizon, no amount of force would keep them from being crushed, and if they were not within the event horizon, they are in no immediate danger of being crushed.<\/p>\n<p>A black hole has two important parts: a singularity and an event horizon. The singularity is the single point in the center at which anything that arrives there is crushed out of existence. The event horizon is the point of no return; once an object is within the event horizon, there is a 100% chance that it will reach the singularity. Outside of the event horizon, a black hole acts just as any other object of its mass would; it has gravity, so things can orbit around it, or fall in if they get too close. The question at hand is, how close is too close? When discussing an object around a black hole, there are three possible locations for the object to be. Location 1 is within the event horizon, completely doomed. Location 2 is outside of the event horizon, but not far enough away to be in orbit; in this situation, the object is doomed with a larger time frame, as it will eventually drift within the event horizon. Location 3 is in orbit around the black hole. The remainder of this discussion will focus on location 3, and where exactly it can be found.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Constants<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For calculation purposes, the Impossible Planet will be assumed to have the mass and radius of Pluto. (Why? The planet appears very small in the episode, so the smallest planet-like object seemed like a good fit.) Parameters are converted to \u201cgeometric units\u201d (1second=2.998X10<strong><sup>10<\/sup><\/strong>cm, 1gram=0.7425X10<strong><sup>-28<\/sup><\/strong>cm).<\/p>\n<p>The planet is also assumed to be orbiting at a velocity of 77,484 m\/s, which is the orbit velocity of Mercury. (Why? Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, and the Impossible Planet seemed relatively close to the black hole, so their orbit speeds may be similar.)<\/p>\n<p>Angular Momentum = L = mass x velocity x radius<\/p>\n<p>m = 1.31X1022 kg = 9.73X10-4cm<\/p>\n<p>v = 77,484 m\/s = 7,748,400 cm\/s<\/p>\n<p>r = 1,137 km = 113,700,000 cm<\/p>\n<p>L = 8.57X10<strong><sup>11 <\/sup><\/strong>cm<\/p>\n<p>Angular momentum is a large factor in the calculation of circular orbit radius.<\/p>\n<p>Circular orbit radius = <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">L (L<strong> \u00b1<\/strong> <\/span><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">\u221a<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"> (L<sup>2<\/sup> \u2013 12M<sup>2<\/sup>) \/ <\/span>2M \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 where M is the mass of the black hole.<\/p>\n<p>*See source Walker, J. (2008) for better formatted equations.*<\/p>\n<p>The equation comes from the differentiation of the equation for gravitational effective-potential. The radius equation represents the maximum and minimum of the effective-potential; a circular orbit is only possible at these two points. The orbit at the minimum effective-potential is more stable, and can compensate for small displacements; this orbit has the larger radius. The orbit at the maximum effective-potential is less stable, and cannot compensate for small displacements (i.e. disturbances will send the planet hurtling into the black hole); this orbit has the smaller radius. The Impossible Planet appears to have an orbit of the second type, as the crew lives in fear of being sucked in. It is also important to note that no orbit can exist if L2 &lt; 12M2, as the radius equation would yield two imaginary numbers.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Experimental Calculations<\/span><\/p>\n<p>We will now present three scenarios, each dependent on black hole size, and determine the feasibility of the Impossible Planet.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Scenario 1<\/em><\/strong>: <em>The black hole is the size of the sun (1 solar mass, radius = 3 km).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>M = 1 solar mass = 1.989X10<strong><sup>30<\/sup><\/strong> kg = 147,683.25 cm<\/p>\n<p>Is L<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> &lt; 12M<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong>? No it is not, so an orbit can exist.<\/p>\n<p>L<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> = 7.34X10<strong><sup>23<\/sup><\/strong> 12M<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> = 2.62X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cir. Orbit radius = <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">[(8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong>)(8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong> <strong>\u00b1<\/strong> <\/span><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">\u221a<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">((8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong>)<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> \u2013 12(147683.25)<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong>))] \/ (<\/span>2 X 147683.25)<\/p>\n<p>= 4.35X10<strong><sup>5<\/sup><\/strong> cm, 4.97X10<strong><sup>18<\/sup><\/strong> cm<\/p>\n<p>unstable orbit: r = 4.35 km<\/p>\n<p>stable orbit: r = 4.97X10<strong><sup>13<\/sup><\/strong> km<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Scenario 2<\/em><\/strong>: <em>The black hole has a mass of 10 solar masses (r = 30 km)<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>M = 10 solar masses = 1.989X10<strong><sup>31<\/sup><\/strong> kg = 1,476,832.5 cm<\/p>\n<p>Is L<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> &lt; 12M<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong>? No it is not, so an orbit can exist.<\/p>\n<p>L<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> = 7.34X10<strong><sup>23<\/sup><\/strong> 12M<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> = 2.62X10<strong><sup>13<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cir. Orbit radius = <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">[(8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong>)(8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong> <strong>\u00b1<\/strong> <\/span><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">\u221a<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">((8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong>)<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> \u2013 12(1476832.5)<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong>))] \/ (<\/span>2 X 1476832.5)<\/p>\n<p>= 4.43X10<strong><sup>6<\/sup><\/strong> cm, 4.97X10<strong><sup>17<\/sup><\/strong> cm<\/p>\n<p>unstable orbit: r = 44.3 km<\/p>\n<p>stable orbit: r = 4.97X10<strong><sup>12<\/sup><\/strong> km<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Scenario 3<\/em><\/strong>: <em>The black hole has the mass of the largest star (2100 solar masses, r = 6300 km).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>M = 2100 solar masses = 4.18X10<strong><sup>33<\/sup><\/strong> kg = 310,134,825 cm<\/p>\n<p>Is L<strong><sup>2 <\/sup><\/strong>&lt; 12M<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong>? No it is not, so an orbit can exist.<\/p>\n<p>L<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> = 7.34X10<strong><sup>23<\/sup><\/strong> 12M<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> = 1.15X10<strong><sup>18<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cir. Orbit radius = <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">[(8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong>)(8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong> <strong>\u00b1<\/strong> <\/span><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">\u221a<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">((8.57X10<strong><sup>11<\/sup><\/strong>)<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong> \u2013 12(310134825)<strong><sup>2<\/sup><\/strong>))] \/ (<\/span>2 X 310134825)<\/p>\n<p>= 9.30X10<strong><sup>8<\/sup><\/strong> cm, 2.37X10<strong><sup>15<\/sup><\/strong> cm<\/p>\n<p>unstable orbit: r = 9.30X10<strong><sup>3<\/sup><\/strong> km<\/p>\n<p>stable orbit: r = 2.37X10<strong><sup>10<\/sup><\/strong> km<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Conclusions<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In this instance, rather than making impossible technology look possible, the creators of Doctor Who have made something possible look impossible. There is no mathematical reason why the \u201cImpossible Planet\u201d could not exist, as long as it is far enough away from the event horizon. According to NASA, \u201cOutside of the horizon, the <a href=\"http:\/\/imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov\/docs\/dict_ei.html#gravity\">gravitational<\/a> field surrounding a black hole is no different from the field surrounding any other object of the same <a href=\"http:\/\/imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov\/docs\/dict_jp.html#mass\">mass<\/a>. A black hole is not better than any other object at \u2018sucking in\u2019 distant objects\u201d (Lochner, Gibb, &amp; Newman, 2004). This is contrary to the general perception that black holes suck in anything and everything in sight. In fact, it will only suck things in once they are already within the event horizon. If an object gets too close to the event horizon, it will naturally drift in the same way that an object would fall to earth if it got too close. Any object in space with a large mass will pull other objects towards it. The only difference with black holes is what happens after things get sucked in. If an object gets trapped in Earth\u2019s gravity, it will simply fall to the ground, and the damage that results will depend upon the size of the object. If an object gets trapped in the gravity of a black hole, it will eventually be crushed out of existence.<\/p>\n<p>The possibility of fall from orbit is not implausible. If the planet were in an unstable orbit, with a short radius, the orbit could be disrupted. The planet does appear to be very close to the black hole, so a scenario similar to scenario 1 is most likely (i.e. an orbit radius of only a few kilometers). The explanation given in the episode for the planet\u2019s orbit is that Satan is trapped in a pit at the center of the planet, creating massive amounts of energy. The presence of the Prince of Darkness would not cause the planet to fall into orbit. However, the disruption caused by his expulsion from his magic cage may be enough to knock the planet out of its precarious orbit. Someone will just need to find a demon-inhabited planet next to a black hole \u2013 and then make it out alive &#8211; in order to fully test this theory.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Sources<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Cain, Fraser (2008). Mass of Pluto. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/13895\/mass-of-pluto\/.<\/p>\n<p>Cain, Fraser (2008). What is the biggest star in the universe? Retrieved from http:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/13507\/what-is-the-biggest-star-in-the-universe\/.<\/p>\n<p>Davies, Russell T., &amp; Graeme, Harper. (July 1 2006). Army of Ghosts. In Phil Collinson, <em>Doctor Who<\/em>. Cardiff: BBC.<\/p>\n<p>Davies, Russell T., &amp; Graeme, Harper. (July 8 2006). Doomsday. In Phil Collinson, <em>Doctor Who<\/em>. Cardiff: BBC.<\/p>\n<p>Davies, Russell T., &amp; Graeme, Harper. (June 21 2008).\u00a0 Turn Left. In Susie Liggat, <em>Doctor Who. <\/em>Cardiff: BBC.<\/p>\n<p>Davies, Russell T., &amp; Graeme, Harper. (July 5 2008).\u00a0 Journey\u2019s End. In Phil Collinson, <em>Doctor Who. <\/em>Cardiff: BBC.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia State University. Angular momentum. Retrieved from http:\/\/hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu\/hbase\/amom.html.<\/p>\n<p>Gott, J. Richard III. (2001). <em>Time travel in Einstein\u2019s universe: The physical possibilities of travel through time. <\/em>Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.<\/p>\n<p>Gribbin, J. (2009).\u00a0<em>In search of the multiverse: Parallel worlds, hidden dimensions, and the ultimate quest for the frontiers of reality<\/em>. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &amp; Sons, Inc.<\/p>\n<p>Jones, Matt, &amp; Strong, James. (June 3 2006). The Impossible Planet. In Phil Collinson, <em>Doctor Who<\/em>. Cardiff: BBC.<\/p>\n<p>Kaku, M. (2005). <em>Parallel worlds: A journey through creation, higher dimensions, and the future of the cosmos.<\/em> New York: Doubleday.<\/p>\n<p>Kaku, M. (2008).\u00a0<em>Physics of the impossible: A scientific exploration into the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation, and time travel<\/em>. New York: Random House, Inc.<\/p>\n<p>Kaufmann, W. J. III. (1979).\u00a0<em>Black Holes and Warped Spacetime<\/em>. San Francisco, CA. W.H. Freeman and Company.<\/p>\n<p>Kopp, C. (2008). High energy laser directed energy weapons. Retrieved 4\/27\/11http:\/\/www.ausairpower.net\/APA-DEW-HEL-Analysis.html<\/p>\n<p>Lochner, J.; Gibb, M.; and P. Newman (2004). Black Holes. Retrieved from http:\/\/imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov\/docs\/science\/know_l1\/cool_black_hole_fact.html.<\/p>\n<p>Pluto. Retrieved from http:\/\/nineplanets.org\/pluto.html.<\/p>\n<p>Thorne, K.S. (1994).\u00a0<em>Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein\u2019s Outrageous Legacy<\/em>. New York, NY. W. W. Norton and Company.<\/p>\n<p>Walker, J. (2008). Orbits in strongly curved spacetime. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.fourmilab.ch\/gravitation\/orbits\/.<\/p>\n<p>Watkins, T. The orbital velocities of the planets. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.sjsu.edu\/faculty\/watkins\/orbital.htm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To begin this post, we feel it is only appropriate to share the Doctor&#8217;s own views on\u00a0Physics. \u00a0Click the link. \u00a0You won&#8217;t be disappointed. Laser Weapons: In Doctor Who, we frequently see the race of aliens called the Daleks arrive on the scene and start yelling \u201cExterminate!\u201d and shooting people with their laser-like \u201cgunsticks\u201d. \u00a0Basically, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":836,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5605],"class_list":["post-1022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-doctor-who-time-travel-parallel-worlds-many-worlds-laser-weapons-black-holes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/836"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1022"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1022\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/ltt\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}