Introduction to Hawking's Area Theorem, stating that the total surface area of event horizons cannot decrease over time in classical general relativity.
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Hawking's Area Theorem
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Hawking's Area Theorem tells us that the total surface area of event horizons can never decrease. Imagine two black holes spiraling inward and merging. The resulting single black hole has a larger horizon area than the sum of the two original areas. This irreversible increase in area strongly resembles the Second Law of Thermodynamics, where entropy always increases. This led physicists to suspect that black hole area is actually a form of entropy.
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