The Science of Interstellar

Great book on the science of Interstellar, black hole properties have conflicting claims in book that could have been made clear
Great book explaining all the science behind the movie. However in the book there are some conflicting claims about the properties of black holes that should be cleared up. In Chapter 5 on Black Holes on page 45, Dr. Thorne writes “First, a weird claim: Black holes are made from warped space and warped time. Nothing else – no matter whatsoever.” Then in Chapter 6 on Gargantuan’s Anatomy on page 57, Dr. Thorne writes “If we know the mass of a black hole and how fast it spins, then from Einstein’s relativistic laws we can deduce all the hole’s other properties:”. If there is no matter whatsoever in a black hole, how can we calculate the mass? The equation w (weight, matter) = m (mass) x g (gravity) doesn’t hold since Einstein’s relativistic laws are used to calculate the mass where m (mass) = c2 (speed of light squared) / E (energy). I think this should have been made clearer with some simple examples and calculations to reduce confusion for the average person between mass and matter and where and how the Energy is measured for a black hole. I do like the quote about black holes to indicate that there are no extra, independent properties beyond its mass and spin on page 57: “A black hole has only two hairs, from which you can deduce everything else about it.” One question though, what about non-spinning black holes, are these just “single hair” black holes? I also really like Dr. Thorne’s labeling of the status of the science for Interstellar on page 33 where “T” stands for Truth (green), “EG” stands for Educated Guess (purple), and “S” stands for Speculation (red) and this is labeled in color at the beginning of a chapter or section so the reader is aware of where science stands today on the particular subject in the movie. Overall a great book on black holes and explaining all the science behind the movie which couldn’t be explained well in the movie’s limited time. Well worth the read and furthering of science education.

Do you know what the event horizon of a black hole is?
The imagery in Christopher Nolan’s movie Interstellar is breathtaking in IMAX. One of the most memorable scenes is of the massive black hole named Gargantua. In this scene we view something that mankind will not see in reality in the foreseeable future. In Kit Thorne’s book the reader learns that in making the movie Nolan stayed as close to known science and scientific speculation as possible. This science can be difficult, but Thorne writes well and provides a number of diagrams that illustrate the points he is making. Prof. Thorne worked on the movie from it’s early beginnings in 2005, when Christopher Nolan’s brother Jonathan worked on the early screen play. At one time Steven Spielberg was slated to direct the movie. We can be glad that he dropped out, because he would not have made the breathtaking movie that Nolan did. Thorne covers the science from the beginning of the movie to the end, where Cooper falls through the black hole into the tesseract structure. As Thorne warns at the start of the book, some sections can be heavy going. If you don’t know what an event horizon is, the book may be especially difficult.What makes black holes so difficult is that their physics is far outside any normal experience.For example, at the end of the movie, Cooper, in one of the landing craft, falls into the black hole. In a massive black hole the tidal forces (the difference in gravity between your toes and the top of your head) are small so he can survive the trip across the event horizon.Thorne mentions several times in the book that as an object approaches the event horizon, time, relative to the rest of the universe, slows toward infinity. To the outside observer, an object becomes trapped at the event horizon (although it cannot be seen). What is hard to understand is that the object, in its own frame of reference, does cross the event horizon.Thorne does not succeed in fully explaining exactly what is happening in this strange region that is outside of our universe. For example, looking out of the hole, in the direction he is falling, does Cooper see all of time come to an end? How fast is he traveling? If he orbits just below the event horizon, is he traveling near the speed of light? Why, exactly, is it so important that Cooper intersect the out falling singularity? Simply stating that this is “historical light” is not an obvious explanation.I suspect that the problem is that many of the answers to these questions exist in mathematical equations, which are Thorne’s old friends, since he has spent a lifetime with them.These complexities make the book both fascinating and difficult at the same time. Einstein once said that ideas should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. Thorne is dealing with complex material and has done a good job of trying to live up to Einstein’s dictum.

Great book but maybe even too many details. It was a bit hard to understand everything even having some basic knowledge.

When I saw Interstellar the first time, I was intrigued. Many more times later, some aspects of the movie made more sense, but the picture was never completed. When I learned about this book, I wanted to read it.Great book that delves into every single scientific aspect of the movie and ascertains whether what is picturised is possible. Although some sections in the book went over my head, the overall context was still clear and I loved the chapters on Gargantua, Worm Holes, Blight and the Tesseract.The book definitely needs a few reads to understand things clearly, but it sparks so much fascination about “what if this could happen…”. So, I definitely will be reading this book many more times to dive deeper and will of course watch the movie many more times.Thanks Chris for making such a movie and Kip, for clarifying the dreams behind the movie!