"represents" being key, here, of course. I don't know if it is possible to infer about the nature of black holes from such experiments-that would be interesting, but certainly unlikely.
How to make a white hole in your kitchen sink
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Oct 15, 2010
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#3
Well, it's a partial analog that looks looser the more I think about it.
- it's 2-dimensional
- the geometry is Euclidean rather than Hyperbolic
- In general relativity, there is no absolute speed at which space is flowing (since the aether was ditched), but there is the concept that you need a certain acceleration to stay in the same place, or a certain speed to escape the gravitational field. This is not quite the same, but closely related.
The event horizon occurs when the wave speed equals this characteristic speed in both cases, which is the most striking thing. It is interesting to think what causes the feature of the raised water level. Waves heading inward would slow down and stop as they reached the kitchen sink event horizon. Why should this cause a hump, since waves go both up and down?
The fact that this seems a bit like the way matter falling into a black hole seems from a distance to stall above the event horizon and take forever to get there is probably just a co-incidence. The causes seem entirely different.
So can anyone see an intuitive argument why there is the circular raised ring in the water?
Interesting post on the Technology Review arxiv blog shows how to make an event horizon (opposite way round to in a black hole).