What woudl happen in the middle of the earth ... would we keep falling?

Question

Say is there was to a a huge hole from one side of the earth to the other, throught the middle...just say there was, and someone jumped down the hole, would they stop in the middle becuase of gravity not knowing which way to pull the person?

Would this person be stuck, or are there any fources that could bring the person to the other side or bring them back?


And also knowing that the is a miricle and that it can be done... jump ignore the logics of it all, just what if?

Answer 1

If the person were to jump thru the hole,he would continue to fall. That is, he would accelerate at 9.8m/s/s. His velocity would increase by 9.8m/s every second.This acceleration is caused due to gravitational force that pulls this person towards its center.

As the person falls towards the center, the only force acting on him is the force of earth's gravity pulling him towards the center.BUT,when he reaches the center the NET FORCE(sum of all the forces acting on him) BECOMES ZERO. In other words, as he falls TRHOUGH the earth, his accelration continues to decrease (towards zero) cuz the earth pulls on this dude in many directions, so when he ends up in the center..the forces all cancel each other out...leaving a net force and acceleration of ZERO. BUT HE DOESN"T STOP FALLING.

Since there is a hole that goes THROUGH the entire earth, the person would continue to fall , BUT NOW, his acceleration will move towards the negative side. U see the net force acting on him is negative now, causing negative acceleration (which u know slows things down). So the dude slows down as he continues to fall PAST the center of the earth. His velocity continues to decrease until he reaches the other side of the earth.

Now, if he didn't grab onto a ledge or something when he came thru the other side of the world, he would fall back into the earth (only to emerge from his original location).

HOPE THAT ANSWERS UR QUESTION =D
I recognized ur question cuz my hs physics teacher asked us the same question during our conceptual physics class (ahh, the fun times...lol)

For more information (or to MOST accurately answer ur question) head to ur school library and check out

Conceptual Physics,
by Paul G. Hewitt
ISBN :0130642894 (copyright 2002)
(the gravity/force chapter)
(=THE BEST book on basic physics ever; try it, u WONT regret it=)

or for more physics help, i recommend
www.cpsurf.com ( a URL u wanna bookmark atleast till the end of ur physics course)

Hope it helps
Enjoy ur physics=D
(and don't mind what that @$#@@#*@ above me, said abour ur english)
Have fun with physics!

Answer 2

If there were a hole through the Earth, but no air resistance, a falling body would continue to the other side, then reverse direction and come all the way back to its starting point. However if there were air resistance, it would eventually slow down until it stopped at the center of the Earth where it would be weightless.

In the first case, the period of dropping from one side of the Earth to the other and back again is exactly the same as the period of an orbit at that height of a satellite around the Earth, about 90 minutes. Interesting, hmmm? That's because a satellite is oscillating in the Earth's gravity field too, it's just doing it in 2 dimensions instead of 1. To see why it doesn't matter, swing a pendulum back and forth in a straight line and time its period. Then make it swing in a circle. The period is the same.

Answer 3

05/10/2006 at 10.45 pm

Ah! you have a good idea,

I try to give follow idea for your reference. I am not familiar with term of explanation the idea in English ......

According to Universal Gravitation Law, which any two objects are attracted each other, there is formula as follow:

F = G * M1 * M2 / R * R


F is the attraction of force.

G is constant figure. I could not remember the figure, but it could be obtained from a physics book & etc.

M1 is the quantity substance of object1 per unit.

M2 is the quantity substance of object2 per unit.

R is distance between the two objects.

The quantity of Force is directly proportional to M1 * M2 and is reversely proportional to R * R.

OK! We return to your question.

Referring to aforesaid Law, this is why any object in the air must be falling into the ground, except an object turns around the Earth & is satisfied by following formula


M * V * V / R * R = F

M is the same as the said M1 or M2.

V is turning around speed.

R is radium for turning around the Earth.

F is the object turning around the Earth needs the force.


According to Energy Constant Law, the formula is as follow:

Mgh1 + MV1*V1 /2 = Mgh2 + MV2*V2 / 2


M is a quantity substance of object per unit.

G is Gravitation constant figure = 9.8 meter / sec* sec

h1 & h2 is the distance between object & surface of earth.

V1 & V2 is the speeds when the object is falling to the ground.


Conditions are as follow.

If the object from h1 is falling to the ground, at the beginning V1 = 0. When the object hit the surface of the ground h2 = 0.

The said formula is as follow:

g * h1 = V2*V2 / 2

So 2*g*h1 = V2 * V2

We are able to calculate the speed V2 of object when it hit ground. If there is the hole mentioned by you through the Earth, we might need the said two laws trying to explain your idea:

We need earth radius r = H = 6,400 KM, condition the speed of object V1 = 0 at the ground:

Therefore we have M * G * H = M* V * V / 2 [V is the speed when the object reaches to the center of Earth]

9.8 * 6,400 *1000 * 2 = V * V

According to the said calculation, we could have V of speed, which the object arrives to the center of earth. Due to the energy is constant & the hole is a through hole, the object might reach to another said of the earth.

Theoretically speaking, when the object reaches to another surface of Earth the speed of the object should be equal to, the calculation is follow:

M V * V / 2 = M * G * H

M * V * V / 2 is wholly energy when the object reaches to the center of earth. M * G * H is the wholly energy when the object reaches to another side surface of Earth, H = r = Earth radium, and then the object will have done the same, which energy is converted from potential energy to moving energy, and so on.

Aforesaid term of physics may not be proper used due to I have not learned the term in English, anyway if you have further queries, please contact me by [e-mail]

Answer 4

I know this as i read it in focus magazine, apparently science says that as you plumet to the center you would pick up momentum and carry on travelling past the centre until you got almost as far as the distance you jump from to begin with, i.e to th opposite side of the world, slowing down all the time due to gravity, then gravity would once gain take over nad propel you back the way you came, in essance , you would be stuck in a continuas free falling loop, never quite making it back to the surface.

Answer 5

Well, i imagine that person would die, eventually.
But for the sake of fun, we say the person is in a capsule and the through hole is quite big.
It will fall in the beginning, hitting the wall of the hole at times, and eventually stop somewhere. Thats theory one.
Theory two, upon reaching centre, the person would be in so much stress due to gravitational pull all round that he is enlarge, or better yet, explode into million pieces.

Answer 6

You would fall through center, then pulled back again through center but less distance and so on, till you balance at the center. You 'd a periodic talantosis if u know (or if such a word exists in english!!!)

Answer 7

Super Mario travels down green pipes into the centre of the earth all of the time and very little seems to happen to him apart from the odd flying duck or cactus plant attacking him. So I recon it would be o.k

Answer 8

Yes you would because by comparison your mass as compared to the earth is small. Take a magnet with a hole in it and drop a non magnetic thing through it - it will just drop through.

Answer 9

What if you were to have an English lesson. Would we be able to understand the question any better?