Image: ALFRED T. KAMAJIAN Click for full-size image

THE ENTROPY OF A BLACK HOLE is proportional to the area of its event horizon, the surface within which even light cannot escape the gravity of the hole. Specifically, a hole with a horizon spanning A Planck areas has ^A/4 units of entropy. (The Planck area, approximately 10^-66 square centimeter, is the fundamental quantum unit of area determined by the strength of gravity, the speed of light and the size of quanta.) Considered as information, it is as if the entropy were written on the event horizon, with each bit (each digital 1 or 0) corresponding to four Planck areas.