StarTalk Radio Things You Thought You Knew – Quantum Cat
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Oct 7, 2025 What bizarre fate awaits someone who falls into a black hole? Discover the eerie process of spaghettification! Dive into the mind-bending world of Schrödinger's cat and learn how measurement changes the quantum game. Explore quantum tunneling, where particles can sneak past barriers—like magic! Did you know this phenomenon is key to stellar fusion in stars? Get ready for a wild ride through the weirdness of quantum mechanics, where probabilities reign and reality is stranger than fiction!
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Seinfeld Compliment Sets The Stage
- Neil deGrasse Tyson humorously recounts describing the Big Bang to Seinfeld and being told it sounded like he was there.
- He uses that story to preface his vivid, physics-based description of falling into a black hole.
Tidal Forces Stretch You Unequally
- Tidal forces arise because different parts of an object feel different gravitational strengths due to distance from the mass center.
- As a massive object shrinks (into a black hole) that difference grows until it dominates the object's internal forces.
Spaghettification: A Gruesome Walkthrough
- Neil narrates falling feet-first into a black hole and how tidal forces progressively tear you apart.
- He describes snapping into pieces down to atoms and being stretched into a stream — the process called spaghettification.
