How would gravity work in this case?

Question

If there was a hole that went right through the Earth and passed right through the core, and an object fell into it, What happens? Does the object go through the Earth and come out the otherside? or does gravity hold the ball right in the middle of the Earth? Would the ball float in the centre?

Answer 1

If we neglect the rotation of the earth and any frictional effects, the object would accelerate until it got to the center, go on past and start to decelerate. It would turn around at the other end of the hole and repeat the process in reverse. It turns out that the object undergoes 'simple harmonic motion', whereby the position is described by a simple sine wave.

Once you add in the rotation of the earth, the object would simply hit the side of the hole fairly quickly. if you add in friction, but neglect rotation, the object would go back and forth past the center, but with decreasing swings until it eventually settled at the center.

Answer 2

This being a hypothetical situation, we must deal the only one predominant force, ie gravity and neglect all others.

As the object moves toward the Earth centre, it gains speed and kinetic energy- so much so that it keeps on moving to the other end of the diameter ie Earths oppsite edge while slowing down due to gravity till it stops at the opposite end of the diameter- gravity now causes it to move towards the Earth center again. Again it crosses over to original end of the Earth, comes back all the way across and will keep repeating till infinite time until an external suitable force is deployed.

A perfect Simple harmonic motion with fixed periodicity- just like a pendulum,

Answer 3

Gravity decreases linearly to zero at the center of the Earth in such a hole. So the object would accelerate as it fell to the center, pass the center at high speed, and decelerate to a stop at the surface on the other side of the world. In the absence of any friction, it would fall back and forth forever, like an orbit but passing through the Earth's core.

Answer 4

The hole would go through liquid, so its sides would fall in. However, neglecting that, and neglecting friction, the ball will oscillate between one end of the hole and the other.

mathematician is wrong!!! The motion is NOT simple harmonic, because the rate at which gravity gets less as the ball nears the centre is inverse cubic, not linear.

Answer 5

If you write the expression for the force acting on the object under consideration ( the process will require the use of integration as the force is non uniform & changes with respect to distance), then you will find that the equation you obtain will be that of SHM(simple harmonic motion). This tells that the object will undergo oscillations.The object would transverse to the other side of the earth & then back again to its starting point.

Answer 6

Yes , the ball will fall attain a high speeed & then osciallate for some time near the core & then come to rest at the core of the earth,.....

As per scientist the Gravity is due to the rotation & revolution of earth & is uniform in all directions.....

Answer 7

Theoretically,the object would be pulled equally by all sides so the object would float in the middle. However, you would have to place the object right in the exact middle. Dropping it down the hole would probably pull it to one side.

Answer 8

The object would vaporize before it ever got there due to the extreme heat at the earth's core. In fact, any "hole" would quickly be filled in by magma below the earth's crust.

Answer 9

i think..coz i'm not that big and expert..but.... the ball would stay in the middle of the earth in this case.. if you really need to know i'll ask my Science teacher.. he knows lots! ok, i'll ask and tell you. bye! ;)

Answer 10

there isn't a hole through my planet , what planet are you from ?