ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Black Mass

Hi there!

So imagine you have some building blocks– like Legos or blocks from a toy set. Now imagine you're building a tower with those blocks, and you want the tower to stay up tall and sturdy.

But what if we take some of those blocks away? Maybe the tower will still stay up, but it will be a little less sturdy. Keep taking blocks away, and eventually the tower might not stand up at all.

Now imagine that the blocks in this tower are like little particles called atoms. When lots of atoms come together, they can make different things, like air, water, rocks, and even you!

If you take away some of the atoms in a particular material, like a rock or a human, it can change the way that material behaves. This can be harmless, like carving a statue out of a chunk of rock. But sometimes, it can be very dangerous.

That's where we come to "black mass." A black mass is a special kind of scientific experiment where scientists take away lots and lots of atoms from a material, making it very different from what it was before.

In fact, when you take away enough atoms from something, like a metal, it can become black and crumbly. This is a type of black mass, and it can be very dangerous because the metal is not as strong as it used to be. Structures and buildings made with this type of weak metal can break down and collapse, which can be very, very bad.

Does that make sense?