[ibeforee]

I was wondering that actually if the hole goes through your leg does it leave a hole or does your whole body get sucked in.

I imagine it is the whole body unless you are travelling really fast at the time. Like near speed of light.

Because the gravity outside the event horizon will still be crazy strong going out for several km (earth is a good comparison in the gravity is still fairly strong about 6000km from the centre)

[dotancohen]

Black holes warp the spacetime around them, so your idea of distance is isn't really valid. Also the idea of time is warped as well, so the black hole doesn't quite just pass through your leg as you expect.

Nor does the black hole "suck" anything in.

What would happen from your perspective if such a black hole were to pass you at high velocity would be the same as if you were to pass the black hole at high velocity. From your perspective, you would begin orbiting that object, carried along with it. So would all the matter near you. But it would be matter, not objects, as the tidal forces would spaghettify all objects very quickly.

[deepsun]

> gravity is still fairly strong about 6000km from the centre

Sounds like the centre is what creates gravity. But there's weightlessness at the Earth center. It's the sum gravity force of all Earth particles that creates total gravity.

[pavel_lishin]

Depends on the size of the hole. If it's small enough, all you might get is one long bruise due to tidal/gravity effects, without losing a single atom of your body

[dotancohen]

This is incorrect. Any matter within about three Schwarzschild radii will never escape the black hole - i.e. will be carried along with it - even if the black hole passes you at the speed of light.

And if the black hole passes you at a velocity lower than the speed of light, then the radius grows. That matter will begin orbiting the black hole and will leave your body just as fast as the black hole left.

[pavel_lishin]

What's the Schwarzschild radius of a black hole the size of an atom? Or would something that size evaporate before it got a chance to snatch any of my leg?

[dotancohen]

The whole idea of encompassing an object that warps space into a sphere in our unwarped space is just a little invalid, especially when examining them on the scale of their constituent particles. I really don't know the answer, but I do not think that a black hole could be the size of an atom. I would expect the strong (or was it weak) nuclear force to overcome the mutual gravity and so compact an object would not be able to form.

I'm just a layman on the topic, and would greatly appreciate any insights by physicists in audience.