Re: CERN Atom Smasher May End the World

Batroc Z. Leaper wrote:
> In article <slrng08ncj.n4f.tim@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, 
> tim@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Tim Little) says...
>> But if it did eat up a proton, then it would be positively charged and
>> vastly more likely to eat an electron further along in its path.
>> Electromagnetic interaction is much, much stronger than gravitaitonal.
> 
> I thought of that, but it's not obvious to me that a black hole could 
> exhibit electrical charge.  EM interactions are mediated by photons, and

> photons don't make it out of a black hole.  

But charge is conserved, so the black hole _has_ to be charged. It's one 
of the few physical characteristics a black hole can have (the others 
being mass and angular momentum, see 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_hair_theorem>).

It probably has something to do with virtual photons or somesuch. I 
wouldn't know the details. :)