Thanks for the reply
Does mass always have volume?
I found this definition of mass on the web: >>The modern definition assigns every object just one mass, an invariant quantity that does not depend on velocity. this is given by m = E0 / c2, where E0 is the total energy of that object at rest.<<
Hawking's definition in "The Universe in a Nutshell" is "The quantity of matter in a body; its inertia or resistance to acceleration in free space".
It helps to remember that mass is interchangeable with energy, but when Hawking talks about the quantity in matter I'm back to thinking volume. Does mass by definition always have volume so that although the black hole has mass and volume the singularity itself does not?
I'd like to describe how I picture a black hole and I'd appreciate it if you could let me know how accurate the picture is.
A star burns out and collapses in on itself. After this event and at the center of what was previously the star is the singularity with its properties of infinite energy but zero volume. I assume this would come about because the particles whose properties caused them to have energy but not mass would be drawn into the singluarity.
Encasing the singularity would be a spherical volume with maximum entropy and a volume determined by the amount of mass, and bounded by its event horizon.
Inside the event horizon nothing including light escapes. (Although it seems to me that they recently determined that some information escapes whatever that means.)
Thanks again for the help.