If there was a hole...

[shev]

....through the middle of the earth, and you jumped into it, what would happen? once you fall into the center of the earth there is equal mass, or almost equal mass maybe theres a mountain on a side, on each side of you. so i think they either cancel eachother out, our there is equal force to every part of your body. or maybe you'd fall out the other side.

 

so what do you guys think would happen? or know what'd happen.

[rbp6]

You'd fall and there'd be less and less acceleration because the gravity would decrease, I think you might end up yo yoing till you reach equilibrium at the center of the earth.

[mezarashi]

If I remember correctly, I believe this question was asked before >_> but I could be wrong. Anyway, yeah, there will be less and less acceleration as you "fall" towards to the center of the Earth. The gravitational force acting on you is proportional to the mass within the volume of your current radial position from the center. Meaning, once you reach the center of the Earth, there will be no gravity, and in fact you will kind of be floating.

 

However, in the situation where you are to jump into a hole that runs through the Earth, when you reach the center of the Earth, you're velocity would be at a max. Neglecting any possible air resistance or friction, you will continue moving until you reappear at the other side of the Earth and start falling back again repeating the same cycle forever. Where damping is present. You will just oscillate back and forth until finally you settle at the center of the Earth.

[shev]

dang, this was asked before? I aksed a couple people at school, they said the air pressure would crush you when you got to the center

 

so if I took a giant ladder to the center, I would float in the middle? or be pulled in every direction? there would still be gravitational attraction, or do they actually cancel eachother out? its not "free fall" though.

 

ok, next question. if I were to just float at the center, eventually would my velocity would wear off? and I'd stop spinning with the earth?

 

sorry if i'm making a mockery of this forum with silly questions.

[ydoaPs]

force of gravity at center is zero, but if the hole went all the way through there should be a bit of harmonic motion due to inertia. after the harmonic motion, you should settle in the middle.

[tekHneEk]

This is my first post, but this question interested me.

 

Think of it this way, it's like taking a ball that's perfectly sphere like. Put that ball in a "pool" or "half-pipe" like substance and or "shape" if you will. (Some will argue that gravity isn't straight, it's a force dependant on... well we all know that.) Anyway, assuming the friction and outside force(s) is slim to none (wind, obscurities, random objects.) you would go down one side, then out the other, this is assuming you drilled the hole on the right side side, some say that the earth is more like a sphere that's squished on the top, and bottom, kind of like a football. Assuming all that's true, you would eventually just end up floating in the center of the earth.

 

When you know how to drill a hole through the middle of the earth let me know, i'll jump with you.

[mezarashi]

so if I took a giant ladder to the center' date=' I would float in the middle? or be pulled in every direction? there would still be gravitational attraction, or do they actually cancel eachother out? its not "free fall" though.

[/quote']

 

Yes, the gravitational attraction from all directions would cancel out. Although technically gravity is zero only at the point at the very center. You wouldn't feel like being pulled in all directions though, because the gravitational difference is too small. If this were a black hole for example. Simply standing on the surface would your head would get ripped off from your torso due to the gravitational difference. This doesn't happen on Earth does it, although your head is farther away from the center of the Earth than your feet.

 

ok' date=' next question. if I were to just float at the center, eventually would my velocity would wear off? and I'd stop spinning with the earth?

[/quote']

 

I'm not sure what you mean here. You will continue to orbit the Sun just like the Earth, but spinning with the Earth as in rotating about yourself? Now that you bring it up, we actually didn't take into account one more force involved, that is the Coriolis force. Given the hole has a component perpendicular to the axis of the Earth's rotation. This force will be exerted on you through the walls of the hole which you are climbing down. It will be nearly negligible though since this force is proportional to the decent speed and frankly, how fast can you decend a ladder. A free fall by jumping however, will result in a very "rough" ride as you will be slamming on the walls of the hole due to this force.

[shev]

I'm not sure what you mean here. You will continue to orbit the Sun just like the Earth, but spinning with the Earth as in rotating about yourself? Now that you bring it up, we actually didn't take into account one more force involved, that is the Coriolis force. Given the hole has a component perpendicular to the axis of the Earth's rotation. This force will be exerted on you through the walls of the hole which you are climbing down. It will be nearly negligible though since this force is proportional to the decent speed and frankly, how fast can you decend a ladder. A free fall by jumping however, will result in a very "rough" ride as you will be slamming on the walls of the hole due to this force.

 

No, I meant not spinning. when you jump the world doesnt move beneath your feet because you are moving the same speed as the earth, it "throws" you right? well at the center and floating the earth was spinning you but since you arent touching anything, eventually would your velocity wear off, and the earth would be spinning but you would be staionary?

 

ok, lets say the earth is spinning 10,000 miles per hour. (I have no idea what the real number is, maybe thats how fast you have to go to get off of earth?) and a space shuttle is coming in for landing. when it hits earth does it skid a lot since the earth is spinning so much? and lets say the space shuttle wasnt orbiting the planet.

 

or lets say an astroid flies into our atmosphere, wouldnt the atmosphere be spinning with the earth? is that why there is so much air resistance against the asteroid that makes it disinigrate?

 

that question made a lot more sense last night, lol.

[J.C.MacSwell]

This is my first post' date=' but this question interested me.

 

Think of it this way, it's like taking a ball that's perfectly sphere like. Put that ball in a "pool" or "half-pipe" like substance and or "shape" if you will. (Some will argue that gravity isn't straight, it's a force dependant on... well we all know that.) Anyway, assuming the friction and outside force(s) is slim to none (wind, obscurities, random objects.) you would go down one side, then out the other, this is assuming you drilled the hole on the right side side, some say that the earth is more like a sphere that's squished on the top, and bottom, kind of like a football. Assuming all that's true, you would eventually just end up floating in the center of the earth.

 

[b']When you know how to drill a hole through the middle of the earth let me know, i'll jump with you[/b].

 

Do this only between the poles or you end up with a "coriollis sunburn" from friction along the sides of the hole.

[swansont]

If there was a search function on this board, would anyone use it?

[ydoaPs]

appearently not

[Kyrisch]

I think the more correct way to ask this is how yould your charred remains behave, seeing as the center of the Earth is estimated to be about 4,000°C.