From: mikkelhaaheim@gmail.com   
      
   On Monday, February 6, 2017 at 8:49:34 PM UTC+1, knha...@gmail.com wrote:   
   > hi hi   
       
   >    
   > It is my understanding that the escape velocity from a 2 solar mass black   
   hole does not reach the speed of light until 3 kilometers away from the   
   singularity, so I don't know what mechanism prevents a pair of 2 solar mass   
   black holes from passing each    
   other at 5 kilometers.  I've tried to look to see if the escape velocity   
   equation changes when two massive bodies are involved, but google was no help.   
      
   Perhaps it might help if you consider the various relativistic frames. 3 km   
   for an outside observer is not necessarily 3km for either BH (actually, it   
   isn't 3 km AT ALL).   
      
   OTOH, depending upon how one defines "merge" in this instance, I do not   
   necessarily agree with Mark's assertion. So long as the singularities   
   themselves do not enter into one another's event horizon, there should be no   
   reason that they could not escape    
   each other's pull, so long as they are moving with enough velocity (the   
   question becomes how much relative velocity is "enough").   
   That said, anything that enters into the event horizon of one is toast, no   
   matter what. My gut feeling is that, once within the event horizon of the   
   first BH, there is no way that the second BH will be able to overcome the   
   local gravitational pull (at    
   least, not without also pulling in the entirety of the first BH into it own   
   event horizon).   
   Of course, the point is rather moot. Probably long before ever getting close   
   to the first event horizon, tidal gravitational forces are going to rip the   
   object into shreds of sub-atomic particles and photons. The interaction of a   
   second BH will just    
   speed up how fast the particles themselves get shredded.   
      
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