If one makes a hole...?

Question

If one makes a straight tunnel (approx. 20m diameter) on the north pole that comes out on the south pole, and throws an object from the north pole into the tunnel. Where will the object finally be?

Answer 1

its not possible, so it will be at the north pole

Answer 2

Assuming that there is no friction or any kind of resistive force within the tunnel, the object will just travel back and forth between the poles, just like a spring-mass system with no friction. Here is how it works.

We can assume that the earth's mass is concentrated at exactly the center. So an object falling through the tunnel will experience less acceleration as it falls, but will gain speed until it reaches the center. Since the object is moving, it will continue past the center, but its acceleration will now increase, directed to the center. So the object will slow down on its ascent. It will eventually stop at the south pole, then fall back to the center of the earth again, repeating the whole process.

Answer 3

Another Bad Science Question.
Lets assume your tunnel is bored by a machine that pushes the material in front to the sides and coats the tunnel with a unknown substance that would hold it open without any other effects (the 1st impossible part) and lets keep the ends closed off to air etc so we don't screw up the weather by sucking all the air into the hole and filling it up (this would be much easier to do if you used the moon or another dead object with no or little gas liquid etc). Unless you can throw with enough force to make the object escape the earths gravity it will fall at 32ft per second per second and bobble a bit around the center (depending on the objects mass and velocity) before settling at the point closest to the center of the earths mass and most likely being torn to bits and compressed in the process.

Answer 4

Center of the earth, vibrating slightly in a manner similar to brownian motion due to the combined effects of all the forces on the object. Assuming of course, the object hasn't melted, and that a supporting tunnel/tube has been inserted to isolate the tunnel bore from the inrushing water at the North pole, and the various liquid and liquefied substances inside the earth.

Answer 5

First of all, let's imagine that it is possible, and that we use a ball-shaped object, for easier understanding.

Now, when the ball is dropped, at a certain point it will hit the wall of the tunnel, because of the Earth's rotation. It will start bouncing from one side of the tunnel to the other one, untill it gets stucked to one side (the "back" one, i.e. the side that will "push" the ball), because of the loss of kinetic energy.

Now we have completely different problem. The gravity will try to drag the ball inside the earth's core, but centrifugal force will be trying to move it away from the core. That is the point of the answer - Try to make an equation, which involves gravitational force and centrifugal force, make them equal and calculate the radius of the earth's depth where such a phenomenon occurs.

Sorry, I'm too busy to calculate it for You, but there is a hint:

m*v^2/r = gamma * (m2-m1)/r^2

Calculate the speed by making kinetic and potential energy equal, and the reference point is the center of the earth.

So, the ball will not drop to the core. Amazing, isn't it?

Answer 6

Actually, the earth's center of gravity is probably not in the direct center. This would be because of the non-uniform arrangement of land masses and oceans. The densities of rock and water are dramaticallly different, so their gravitational pull is different.

Likewise, I would doubt that magma is a uniform temperature. This means even the magma has variable density, and thus variable gravitational attraction.

Therefore, the object would eventually be pulled off course, hit a side, and come to rest. It would probably not even make it through the depth of the crust before it stopped.

Additionally, the inertial effect of the earth's rotation and movement around the sun would also keep the object from traveling in a straight line.

Answer 7

ok...so many things wrong with this:

if the earth was hollow and gravity was some what in effect you could possible drop it to the other side and it would fly out of the whole just liek the cartoons. however if there was a tunnel through the earth the object would most likely travel a little more than half way through the earth before gravity pulled it back and it would get stuck in the center of the earth.

but none of this is possible because you cant drill though the earth's mantle or inner or outer cores

Answer 8

Well if someone manages to dig the hole then threw the object in gravity will pull the object to the south pole and back to the north again.That will happen over and over until the object is stuck in the middle and burns to a crisp.

Answer 9

Am I the only one who thinks that the suns pull will eventually will pull it to the side and it will rub, thus slowly losing it's energy and finding the center where it will roll with the sun, changing only slightly Due to the moons gravity.That was fun got another one? PS me I would shove a 20m dia tube made of supper alien metal and blow it out one end for effect, to stop all the remarks about magma.also the pressure would equalize and the earths core would start to cool so after a while it will be time for me to tie off and go get it.

Answer 10

It would ocillate between the north and south pole. The potential energy at the north pole would be converted to the kinetic energy up to the south pole and vise versa. However, considering the friction of air, it would end up at the middle of the two poles.

Answer 11

Well all the water under the ice on the North Pole would run into the hole, so it depends on whether the object floats or not.