What are worm holes?

A worm hole is a particular solution to Einstein's relativistic equation for gravity in which two parts of space-time may be topologically joined together. Unlike black holes, they have no singularities at least in the 'vacuum solution', but certain rotating 'Kerr-Nordstrom' black holes may serve the same worm hole-like function. Many science fiction authors like to use them to allow spacecraft to travel quickly from place to place in our universe. But all of these ideas are based on 'pure math' descriptions of how they might work, and as you know, nature is often much messier than any idealistic, abstract rendering. There are no perfectly straight lines in the universe, and there are not likely to be wormholes either.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald

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