3 ms·
Can you pet a black-body cat?
A friend has a very black cat. It looks like made of void.
Today we had some time, and with time comes nerd stuff.
I was wondering if you can pet an hypothetical 100% black body cat.
How much Hawking radiation will emit?
And what about the body temp?
Of course I don't need an exact answer. It is just "I hope you are wearing full radiation suit" Or, "your hand will be frozen"
Thank you
- eesmith 4y agoYes, absolutely and without a problem. Vantablack is effectively a black body, and it's at room temperature with no need for radiation protection or worries about an event horizon. The thing is, a black body doesn't mean it emits no light. Instead, it absorbs all light and emits black-body radiation - a certain spectrum which depends only on its temperature. A hot piece of iron in the foundry glows due to its black-body radiation. A cat is at body temperature, which very close to that of people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation#Human-body_emission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-body_radiation#Human-bod... works out that the peak wavelength for black-body light from humans is 9.50 µm - infrared. Humans can't see infrared, and very little of the energy comes in the form of visible light. So your hypothetical cat would look like a black shadow, but would purr and be no problem to pet.
- ankaAr 4y agoSo, the cat will Be at room temp and no worries about the radiation. Nice!!
- eesmith 4y agoWell, the cat will be at cat temp, which is warmer than the room. Cover a cat with Vantablack and you'll be close to your black-body cat. (Be aware that this might not be good for the cat: it might make the cat too hot, I don't know the toxicity, I don't know how it affects self-grooming, etc.)