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I'm fairly new to physics and currently reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Hawking is talking about black holes being the size of a few miles containing the mass of multiple times the sun's mass. How can matter be squeezed that dense? Isn't there a final point of matter being squeezed?

Maybe a silly example, but if a black hole can be multiple miles in diameter, why can't I compress my daily garbage to the size of a cubic centimeter sized cube with a giant hydraulic press? Or change the density of a steel block with a gigantic press?

So basically, how can an atom be squeezed denser than it already is? I guess that's what happens in black holes at least! I couldn't find a non-physicist easy explained answer, an answer like how Hawking explains things by examples in his books. Thanks!

Muze
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Markinson
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    If you had enough pressure available, you could squeeze your garbage down to a black hole. If you read this NASA page, you can see more realistic situations that occur in stars. http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve/ –  Jun 22 '16 at 22:08
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    Actually this question is already answered here: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/39100/how-can-black-holes-be-so-dense?rq=1 –  Jun 22 '16 at 22:15
  • Surely Mr Hawking explains in his book what is going on and why. – sammy gerbil Jun 22 '16 at 23:16

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