Talk:John Michell

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The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240626-the-priest-who-predicted-black-holes-in-1783

1911 Text

The text I restored on 22 July 2004 is from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, a well known (on Wikipedia) public domain source. I think it had been unintentionally removed with some copyvio text Gwimpey 16:28, Jul 22, 2004 (UTC)

Confusion between two John Michells

I have added another entry (John Michell (writer)) for the living English writer of the same name and corrected a number of links which were clearly intended to refer to him, not to the 18th century scientist covered by this entry. I may have missed some incorrect links.Rodparkes 10:30, 10 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation

I would like to know if "Michell" is pronounced as "Mishell" or "Mitchell"? Thanks Melamed katz 21:41, 10 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is pronounced "meshell" or "mis-shell" and the family name is originally from Brittanny. My pleasure. Please note that many of his books, previously out of print, are being reissued, notably "Megalithamania". User:SageMab, 23 October 2007

The above comment on "Megalithomania" is obviously intended to refer to the other John Michell - see John Michell (writer). Rodparkes 13:36, 25 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Schwarzschild Radius

Classically, for a particle of mass m a distance r from a much larger mass M is to escape its gravitational field its total energy equal to the sum of its kinetic energy and its potential energy must be greater than zero or,

E=T+V={\frac {1}{2}}mv^{2}-{\frac {GMm}{r}}\geq 0

.

Solving for r and setting the intial velocity equal to the speed of light, c, one gets,

r\geq {\frac {2GM}{c^{2}}}

which is the Schwarzchild radius. See Kenyon, I.R. (1990). General Relativity. Oxford University Press. p. 106. ISBN 0-19-851996-6. The value of GM for a star can be found if it has another body in orbit about it and the semimajor axis and period of the orbit are known. The gravitational constant G is only needed to determine the mass of a body. --Jbergquist (talk) 04:05, 31 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

About his complexion

It's written He was described by a contemporary as "a little short man, of black complexion, and fat". Which is surprising for that era considering the racialism and global negative prejudices towards black people. Please provide the source. And no "Cosmos" from Fox TV is not a source, and a contemporary is not enough. Who is that contemporary, and again what's the source? Thanks :-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.63.151.109 (talk) 05:28, 19 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes neither of these citations are primary sources! Who was this contemporary and where is the quotation from? Gymnophoria (talk) 20:12, 18 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It is most likely that a description as being "of black complexion" in 18th-century England would have referred to the colour of a person's hair, not the skin. We would need a much more direct reference to his skin colour before interpreting the description as referring to that. TowardsTheLight (talk) 21:33, 18 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to recall the "wanted" notices for Charles II described him as being "a tall, black man". DuncanHill (talk) 21:43, 18 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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'Dark stars'

Hello. I've edited the section on black holes because I can find no instance of Michell using the term 'dark stars', (which the section attributed to him). The attribution of this phrase to Michell seems to be implied in this secondary source (cited in the wiki page): https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200911/physicshistory.cfm. But if read carefully, it seems unclear whether the author intends this. They are using quotation marks in an ambiguous way. I can find no mention of the phrase in any available version of Michell's 1783-4 paper. 213.225.227.175 (talk) 14:38, 23 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]