If you dug a hole thru the earth from Altoona, PA USA...where would you emerge? China? Europe? Where?

Answer 1

Consider a globe and think about it. Assuming you mean you go through the exact center (which as others have pointed out is, practically speaking, impossible, but suppose it weren't), you have to go to the opposite end of the earth. This means that if you start in the northern hemisphere, you have to end up in the southern hemisphere, and if you start in the western hemisphere, you have to end up in the eastern hemisphere. This rules out Europe and China, both of which are in the northern hemisphere. (You could certainly dig a hole to either Europe or China, but it would not be through the center of the earth. For Europe, it might have to be crooked else you may go through the sea.)

If you are familiar with latitude and longitude, they tell you exactly where you are on the earth. Altoona is at 40 degrees 31' 07" North latitude, 78 degrees 23' 42" West longitude. (Latitude measures degrees north or south of the equator, up to 90, and longitude measures degrees east or west of the prime meridian in England, up to 180 degrees.) To find out what's at the opposite end of the earth, we just convert these into degrees south latitude and east longitude. This puts us in the Pacific Ocean near a tiny island called Ile Amsterdam, halfway between Africa and Australia (about 2,000 mi west off the coast of Australia). If you have Google Earth -- http://earth.google.com -- you can put 40 31' 07" s, 78 23' 42" e into the search field and see where it is on a globe.

Answer 2

IT does not matter in which direction you go from Altoona, you will never get anywhere...

Answer 3

It would depend on the angle at which you are digging. Theoretically, if you go straight down, you would wind up in the Indian Ocean.

Answer 4

You wouldn't make it--the Earth's core is made of molten lava--you'd be burned to a crisp before you even got close.

Answer 5

Africa