In the same vein, what about a stellar-sized black hole like Cygnus X-1? At this size the rate of evaporation is quicker, right?
In the same vein, what about a stellar-sized black hole like Cygnus X-1? At this size the rate of evaporation is quicker, right?
A tablespoon is a measure of volume, not mass
Ack, ya got me! My mistake.
One tablespoon of sugar is NOT equal to one tablespoon of neutron degenerate matter, that’s for freaking certain.
I was thinking more along the lines of something like sugar.
I think it’s fine to say a tablespoon in this case. You use tablespoon when you’re not being exact, it just means “a small amount”. Science communication needs to know when to be literal and exact (as in when you design safety measures for radiation, e.g.) and when you can just talk like a normal human being that doesn’t have a stick up their degree.
It’s kind of interesting to note that you can’t have “a tablespoon of blackhole”, since they don’t have a volume. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from answering the question.
It works well enough here. It’s bigger than a microgram, and smaller than a kilogram. With the numbers we are working with, being within several orders of magnitude would be an impressive answer.