Black holes can be difficult to study, so researchers have made a powerful quantum vortex in a tank of superfluid helium that acts as a simulation of a black hole
  • @hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
    2•4 months ago

    I wonder how useful models like this actually are. A vortex of superfluid helium sounds like it might have weird and interesting properties, but what can those properties really tell us about black holes? Sure, they might exhibit some analogous behavior, but it just seems like a stretch to use this as a model.

    Then again, “it’s only a model”, and if it could possibly give indications of new properties to search for, I guess it’s worth doing?

      • @hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
        2•4 months ago

        Oh yes absolutely, but some models are also useful. I just have absolutely no knowledge of how useful these “physical analogy” models have generally ended up being in physics