what will happen if we throw a ball right through a hole which is drilled from north pole to south pole?

Question

in my opinion... wen the earth is cut into 2... the mass is also distributed equally.. hence, according to newtons law, mass is the main factor dat contributes to gravity F=(GMm/r^2)... so the ball will oscillate not up and down, but left n right... coz there is no gravity pull towards the center of the earth anymore... i dont understand y is everyone answering the same thing saying dat the ball oscillates vertically when the gravity pull is on the left n right of the ball... pls explain.. thank u..

Answer 1

To answer the question you asked about "sideways" gravity... there is mass symmetrically distributed around the hole, so there is an equal gravitational pull in all directions perpendicular to the hole... net result is no sideways force on the ball. So all of the motion is in the direction of the shaft you drilled.

If you drilled a similar hole "off center" say from Chicago straight south to the southern hemisphere, then there would be a gravitationl tug toward the Earth's center and the ball would "bounce" through the hole and after losing enough energy would roll in oscillation along the length of the shaft.

Aloha

Answer 2

Wow, another question exactly like this... :)

It will keep moving between the poles, assuming the hole is perfectly drilled, heat is not an issue, and the ball does not experience friction with anything.

It's basically an oscillator,meaning it will keep moving between the ends of its path. One end is at the north pole(or south, wherever you start). The opposite end is exactly the same distance from the earth's center to the first pole, and oppossite it. AKA the other pole.

What happens is the ball will start falling, and will gain speed. However, its acceleration keeps decreasing as it nears the center of the earth. At the center, it has its max speed, but acceleration is 0. Then it starts to lose speed as it starts to go up (away fron the center of the earth.) What happens next is simply like throwing a ball in the air. It will stop at the other pole and then fall back, reepaeting the cycle.

Answer 3

Assuming that there were no air resistance, the ball would drop through the center of the earth and rise to the surface on the other side. It would then return via the same path and travel all the way back to your hand. This motion would repeat over and over again, with the ball taking 84 minutes to go from your hand to your hand. That time is the same as it would take a satellite to orbit the earth once at sea level. In effect, the ball is orbiting through the earth rather than around it!

However, because there would be air resistance unless you maintained a vacuum inside the hole, the ball wouldn't rise to its original height after each passage through the earth. It would gradually loss energy and speed, and would eventually settle down at the very center of the earth.

Answer 4

All you did is drill a hole, so you really didn't change Earth that much. You could think about cutting the Earth into a left and right half, but you could just as easily cut Earth into a top and bottom half, or upper left and lower right half, or whatever.

How could the ball move side to side if the hole is up and down?

The people above are all correct - the ball would oscillate up and down, until finally slowed to a stop by friction and/or air resistance.

Answer 5

If such a hole could be drilled, the ball would fall down the hole, accelerating until it reached its terminal velocity. It would continue downwards until it reached the center of the earth, when it would begin decelerating, now on its way up toward the South Pole. But since its terminal velocity is rather small, it would quickly decelerate to zero speed and begin to fall towards the center of the earth again, shuttling back and forth along the center of the shaft until its motion was stopped by air resistance at the center of the earth.

Answer 6

The ball would be attracted by gravity till it reached the centre of the earth whereupon it would eventually come to rest there after oscillating about the centre in a damped simple harmonic motion. This assumes that the hole could be kept open and ball didn't vapourise as the temperature is 5000 degrees there.

Answer 7

When first dropped, the vast majority of the mass is "below" the ball and will bring it towards the opposite side of the earth. yes it will feel a pull on the sides as well, but they are equal on all sides, so they cancel each other out.

However, b/c the earth spins, the ball will eventually hit a wall of the hole and begin to bounce back and forth as well as going towards the opposite pole.

Answer 8

you won't be able to make a hollow that is going all the way for the period of the midsection of the earth as you intend (postponing the shown fact that we are able to no longer even drill to the mantel) for 2 reasons. a million)The outer center is liquid; so, you may no longer have a hollow via a liquid. 2)despite if there became a hollow that went for the period of the earth by utilising utilising the midsection, it does no longer proceed to be one. it is because of the fact the earth's inner center is moving at an greater velocity than that of the earth. that's what creates the magnetic field. meaning that when there's a hollow the middle might turn so as that the hollow is in a distinctive place effectively protecting up the "front way". What you may probable ask is that if an merchandise could desire to "faze via" stable remember, yet might nonetheless be effected by utilising the earth's gravitational field, and could desire to with stand 6,500 +/- 3 hundred ok temperatures, what might happen? And to this, the object might ultimately provide up on the placement it is the midsection of gravity (no longer in the present day, it might slowly come to a stand nonetheless because of the fact the fee slows because of the fact it does no longer have sufficient stress to make it to the different area of the earth).

Answer 9

NEGLECTING air friction, it will fall through the center of Earth's gravity, decelerate, turn around and come right back to you.

WITH air friction, it will oscillate about the center of Earth's gravity for a while, but ultimately come to rest at the center of Earth's gravity and stay there.

Answer 10

Hi. If you can keep it cool enough it would oscillate back and forth slowly losing momentum until it got near the center. There in no gravity at Earth's core, or at least it is balanced in all directions. Not sure where it would settle down.