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orthonormal comments on Stupid Questions December 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: Gondolinian 08 December 2014 03:39PM

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Comment author: orthonormal 26 December 2014 10:26:50PM 0 points [-]

Also if you throw matter into a black hole just right you can get its equivalent (or half its equivalent I forgot which) out in energy.

Not in useful energy, if you're thinking of using Hawking radiation; it comes out in very high-entropy form. I was so sad when I realized that the "Hawking reactor" I'd invented in fifth grade would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Comment author: alienist 27 December 2014 01:49:34AM 8 points [-]

I wasn't talking about Hawkings radiation. If I throw matter in a black hole just right, I can get half the mass to come out in low-entropy photons. That's why the brightest objects in the universe are black holes that are currently eating something.

Comment author: orthonormal 27 December 2014 02:36:39AM 3 points [-]

Ah, cool! Forgot about how quasars are hypothesized to work.

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