<p>There is a useful model of spacetime as a rubber sheet that is bent by masses laying on it. But it should be remembered that this is an analogy (<a href="https://xkcd.com/895/" rel="noreferrer">Obligatory xkcd)</a> and most analogies fail if pushed too far. Spacetime isn't made of something that can rip.</p>

<p>A rotating black hole, a "Kerr black hole" is stranger than a static one, as it pulls spacetime around it and can accelerate objects passing close to it. Even so there are no rips, no singularities outside the event horizon.</p>

<p>However in another way, at the centre of every black hole there is a singularity, and a singularity is a single point "rip" in spacetime. General relativity can be used to predict what happens to spacetime around the black hole, and even inside the event horizon. But at the singularity the gravity becomes infinite, and at that one point, spacetime doesn't exist.</p>

<p>It is suggested that a <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/naked-singularities-extreme-physics-special/" rel="noreferrer">"naked" singularity</a>, not surrounded by an event horizon, cannot exist. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-02-12T08:07:16.210Z
2016-02-12T08:36:59.007Z
2016-02-12T08:36:59.007Z
James K
<p>Can a black hole which has an enormous mass and spins so fast cause spacetime to to be stretched to is absolute limits that it  start so rip?  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-11T08:27:55.807Z
Then the rip that we perceive is the absolute departure from the mathematical and mental relationships we have of the object or thing.
Ian Barber
<black-hole><space-time>
Can a black hole rip spacetime
Vase Dodevski
# Can a black hole rip spacetime

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-02-12)

Can a black hole which has an enormous mass and spins so fast cause spacetime to to be stretched to is absolute limits that it start so rip?

**Tags:** black-hole, space-time

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Then the rip that we perceive is the absolute departure from the mathematical and mental relationships we have of the object or thing.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-02-12. Score: 9 | Accepted answer

There is a useful model of spacetime as a rubber sheet that is bent by masses laying on it. But it should be remembered that this is an analogy ([Obligatory xkcd)](https://xkcd.com/895/) and most analogies fail if pushed too far. Spacetime isn't made of something that can rip.

A rotating black hole, a "Kerr black hole" is stranger than a static one, as it pulls spacetime around it and can accelerate objects passing close to it. Even so there are no rips, no singularities outside the event horizon.

However in another way, at the centre of every black hole there is a singularity, and a singularity is a single point "rip" in spacetime. General relativity can be used to predict what happens to spacetime around the black hole, and even inside the event horizon. But at the singularity the gravity becomes infinite, and at that one point, spacetime doesn't exist.

It is suggested that a ["naked" singularity](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/naked-singularities-extreme-physics-special/), not surrounded by an event horizon, cannot exist.


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