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Comment by martinko | Hacker News Reader

> here we have to assume that the black hole is not rotating very fast

From the article: "The black hole needs to be spinning very fast"

Calculations about time dilation become enormously more complicated in a system where the black hole is spinning, because you get effects like frame dragging that influence the orbits and time. For the purposes of the parent poster, a ball-park number of distance is enough, they don't need the whole shebang.

> For the purposes of the parent poster, a ball-park number of distance is enough

Citation needed.

It's been said repeatedly that considering the strong rotation of the black hole is critical for the situation in the movie to be possible. "It's hard" is not an excuse to ignore a strong effect.

ThePhysicist talks about using the bits of information provided in the movie to learn about the basics of some of the physics behind it. That's why he points to the formula for calculating a Scharzschild radius and not the complicated solutions of Einstein's field equation for Kerr (rotating) black holes. As a learning experience, you don't want to dive into the hardest stuff right away. As a you learn, you'll also figure out what was a ball-park number and what wasn't.

Also, the effect is strong, but in all of the formulas you're already guessing factors such as mass of the black hole, which have a far bigger influence on the end result.

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