If I dig a whole all the way through the earth and jump in it what effect does gravity have?

Question

Assume we can dig a hole that deep and I have a special suit on for high pressure and temperature.

Answer 1

Ok well lets assume that we are not taking pressure or temperature into account, nor friction due to to air speed etc. If you jumped in the hole you would fall, and continue falling at greater and greater speed. Now as you approach the center of the earth the force of gravity would decrease but momentum would keep you going right thru the center and towards the other side.
Now gravity would start to increase again as you get farther from the center, but it would tend to start slowing you down. until it caused you to stop, right about the other side of the hole in the earth. Think of a bungee jumper, same thing. Now if you were not able to hold on to something you would start falling back down the hole and it would repeat.

Of course this is a VERY simplified view of what would happen. In reality you have things like the rotation of the earth th consider, which would cause you not to fall straight down the hole, but into the side wall of the hole. But it is a good thought experiment to help understand gravity.

Answer 2

Dig a whole what? Save the energy just dig half a one.

Anyway, if you could dig a hole straight through, and it did not collapse and fill with lava from the earth's mantle, etc etc, you would fall until the center when you started going up, then fall back down until the center etc etc until your momentum was overcome by gravity. You would fall straight through the hole and not bump the side since you would not achieve escape velocity and would always be in and part of the earth's gravity well. So, the earth and its inherent motion would be your frame of reference for your trajectory. To you, you would be falling straight down, but to an observer outside of earth's gravity well, you would already be moving laterally before you started going down. Sort of like dropping a rock from your hand while holding it out the window of a moving car. To you, it falls down and back, to someone on the side of the road (as long as it doesn't hit them) it falls in a forward arc.
Just like dropping a rubber ball and the bounces get smaller and smaller until it stops, your successive trips through the center would get shorter and shorter. You would finally stop in the center of the earth and be forced to climb your way out---bring some mountaineering gear.

Answer 3

the gravity will have the same effect on u whether u r on the surface of earth or several feet in it.But I must tell u tht if u dig a hole till the core of the earth gravity will not affect u but the heat will as the core of earth is extremely hot.

Answer 4

Without any resistance you would be accelerated towards the centre, shoot straight through and momentarily come to rest at the antipode. Should you choose not to stay you would then oscillate about the centre of the earth (as your acceleration would always be towards the centre).

However, no matter how streamline you try to make yourself, there is likely to be a significant amount of friction. So, in practice your oscillation about the centre of the earth would be damped. If I remember rightly (because I've calculated this before) the period of oscillation would be roughly 90 minutes, close to the orbital time of a low orbit satellite. You would eventually come to rest at the earth's centre.

That's the effect of gravity. The effect of temperature is ...

Answer 5

Gravity will have an oscillating affect on you where by once you hit the centre and pass through on your way out gravity will pull you back in again and slow your speed down so that you won't quite reach the surface on the opposite side. You will travel back in and back out a shorter distance each time until you finally stop in the centre and burn because it's pretty hot down there!!

Unless you ignore all resistances and frictions and make a few assumptions about your state, centre of gravity, etc... then you will come out the other side!

Answer 6

if u dig a hole and travel through it , as you go deeper to the centre of the earth , the gravity will go on decreasing.The reverse will happen when u move away from the centre . Gravity is 0 at the centre of earth.Thus you will come to execute a Simple Harmonic Motion or oscillation with a time period of 84.4 minutes.i.e u will take 42.2 mins to travel from one end to the other of earth.

Answer 7

You will oscillate with the centre of the earth as your mean position.

I mean, you will start falling, reach a maximum velocity at the centre of the earth (suppossing that its a long tunnel and ignoring the question of practicality of such a tunnel) and then continue with lessening velocity untill you just reach the surface at the other end. However then you will again start falling towards the centre as you will again be attracted. This will go on for ever if there is no friction. If friction is there (waals of tunnel and you) then you will gradually oscillate with lesser amplitude (that is your maximum displacement from the centre of the earth) each time untill you stabilize at the centre of the earth.

Answer 8

The closer you get the the core, the less the gravity. If you didn't burn up or die from the immense pressure down there first, you would probably start to slow down the closer you got to the core. At the core, the gravity is zero because it is the source of the gravity.

Answer 9

This is not possible first of all. Molten lava in the core of the earth is very hot and will melt you literally. Gravity tries to propell you towards the core of the earth. And once you are there you will remain there as that is where all the gravity is centered.

Answer 10

You would be stuck some place in the middle. Gravity would pull you down from both ends. You would be like a yo-yo until you finally stopped. Have fun digging.