Black Hole by Michael Finkel

Michael Finkel does a good job articulating facts of the black hole to the audience in a way for us to comprehend. Furthermore, Finkel provides many examples that support his claim. For example, he writes, “If our sun suddenly became a black hole- not going to happen, but let’s pretend- it would retain the same mass, yet its diameter would shrink from 865,000 miles to less than four miles.” He interacts with the audience in an informal way and depicts concrete facts that relate to everyone living on this planet. In addition, Finkel broadens our understand just by his use of structure. Each new topic begins with bolded words that highlight his important claims. Not only are they bolded, the words catch your attention: “No one has ever seen…”, “It’s important to clarify…”, and “While an outside observer…”. The author did incorporate Huxley’s Three dimensions, but I felt he directed it more on the second dimension. The second dimension includes the objective, historical, factual, and the concrete. Finkel states factual information about black holes rather than talking about his inner experience. He writes, definite facts like “The universal speed limit is 186,282 miles a second, the speed of light. But even that isn’t enough to defeat the pull of a black hole.” Furthermore, Finkel talks about past scientists and their observations. For example, Einstein did not believe in such nonsense of a black hole. Finkel incorporates some parts of the third dimension: towards the abstract, the poetic, and the universal. In his conclusion, his last thoughts got me thinking. “The evidence for what could reside in a black hole is compelling…. A black hole might have originated in another universe. But we may be living in it.” The writer states that there is an end to the black hole, but no one knows what actually is occurring within it. The fact that Finkel questions our existence within one is very abstract and poetic. I think Finkel chose to write a scientific paper on the black hole because 1. It is very interesting, and 2. The unknown provides curiosity, fear, and enlightenment.