here's a tough question..?

Question

If there's a hole straight through the earth, from the south pole to the north pole, and you jump through it what would happen? would you keep falling forever, or fall back down when you get to the middle, or is it physically impossible?

Answer 1

you people answering this question are so not fun...

it's a hypothetical question.... yes it's impossible, yes the core is theorized to be hot molten mass that would burn you to cinders, but can any of you just use your imagination to consider it as a problem in gravitational force?

a hole from pole to pole presupposes that the nature and substance of the core is immaterial to the problem being posed.

shooting from the hip, i'd say that one's falling momentum would probably carry a person beyond the center of the earth, to some distance toward the other pole before that momentum would succumb to the gravitational force of the center. you would then plummet back to the center again, with momentum carrying the body back past the center the other way, only a somewhat shorter distance. it would be like riding a swing or a pendulum along a straight course instead of an arc, ever decreasing in range until eventually stabilizing at the center. kind of like the battering ram at busch gardens williamsburg.

Answer 2

There is no hole in the middle of the earth from the north to the south pole. And if there was, there is no way you would survive the layers of lave that is located in the earths center. Have you never take a geography class?!?!



But if there is a hole...
it depends on the speed with which you enter the hole
if the speed is slow (slower than gravitational acceleration)
you'll eventually end up at the center of the earth
where the pull of gravity will eventually stabilize you
(you'll go back and forth according to a second-order underdamped system)
however, if you go too fast, you'll decelerate while going through the earth, but eventually go full clear and off to space in a straight line

Answer 3

Well,
to create a shaft directly through the core of the earth, you would need a material able to withstand the heat of molten lava under pressure. You would also need to encase the walls of the shaft with this material to keep the molten core of the earth from plugging up the hole again (sort of like a pierced ear). After you then survived the change in the magnetic flux of the core and te magnetic shift of the planet, you could possibly attempt the journey, if you had adequate heat protection.
Theoretically, since the molten core of the planet is the source of the graviational pull on us, once you reached the core, you would cease movement as you have reached the center of the gravitational pull. It would be much stronger there than at the surface so you would be basically heavier and probably could not move or even breathe. I would think it would be similar to a gravity well, also known as a black hole, perhaps not so intense as to bend ligth waves, though it's possible..

Answer 4

It doesn't matter how deep the hole it; our bodies reach what is called 'terminal velocity' because of our shape, size and air resistance. Skydivers and skiers know how to streamline their bodies to limit the air resistance, but terminal velocity for them is still something around 120 MPH or less. So you would take a long time to fall to the center, and once you were there, you would START to fall up the other side, but with a very small initial velocity, you would never make it back to the other side of the planet. You would eventually come to rest at the center, from air resistance, and starve or die of dehydration.

Answer 5

Ok, it is physically impossible for man to dig that hole. However, if you jumped in you would probably slow to a stop as you approached the core (never mind that you would burst into flames). There is zero gravity at the earth's core.

Answer 6

hi ...you would free fall past the center of the earth and then bungee back up?..well lets say the opposite direction, past the center again...and undulate back and forth with less and less speed until you became stationary dead center.
. And I mean dead center cause unless you got a good heat resistant suit and some water, you time could be limited.

There would be no up or down (like in space) and you would be held there. The only way out is to climb out! ...cool

Great question ...whoda thunk!

Answer 7

i would say that you would probably just get stuck floating in the center because of the gravitational force from both ends. i think you would just be stuck there forever. even to then dig another hole going east and west would not help. as someone said in an earlier post; there is no gravity at the center of the earth, so like in space, you would float.

Answer 8

Impossible, Why you may ask?

Well the molten core would fry you to a crispy critter and then burn that to a cinder, then burn that to ashes and then that would just phoooof!

I wonder too, if that hole would create a molten spew?

Then there is the issue that heat rises. Does that mean that the heat would rise and cool the core and the earth would collapse in on itself?

Answer 9

Well assuming that one could actually drill such a hole and that all the lovely layers would not kill you I figure you would kinda hover in the middle because of the gravity from each end of the hole and the rotation of the earth

Answer 10

It is phisically impossible because the earth's center core would fry you to a crisp.

But if it was possible you would fall down because of gravity.