If the earth was solid, could you dig right through it.?

Question

Plus when you get half way there you will have to start digging upwards. What happens when you get to the other side Will you fall backwards or will you stand up?

theoretically could you?

Answer 1

the earth is not solid, it contains liquid metals. So the essential problem is, you'll burn to death.

But let's assume you won't burn to death and the earth is solid, and your tunnel will not collapse because of the pressure.

Halfway, you'll notice that gravity will change direction, since your attracted towards the center of the earth. It's then easier to interchange the position of your head and feat: you'll start climbing upwards. On the top you'll climb out of your tunnel. You should take care though, not falling down because then you'll fall down, through the center of the earth, upwards until you reach the height you fell from, and then you'll start falling down again.

So in conclusion, create a solid earth, don't burn, don't fall, don't let your tunnel collapse and climb out at the other end. good luck.

Answer 2

Well, yes and no.
The Earth is technically solid. Nothing's causing it to be liquid down there except the immense amount of weight of the solids on top of it keeping it warm.
So the initial problem you run into is 'could the Earth be solid?'
The answer to that is no.
However, if the Earth was made of a light enough material such that the interior remained cool and thus solid, then I suppose it would be possible to dig through it...though even that much aerogel wouldn't do the job for you...it's too dense.

Something I like imagining is what would happen if you had dug a tunnel through the center of the earth and then jumped into it.

Without air resistance, you'd fall, accelerating before you passed the center of the earth, and decelerating once you'd passed it.
Just as you reached the other side, you'd stop, and then fall back down again in an ever continuing cycle.
With air resistance, after a while, you'd get stuck in the middle, completely weightless.
Cool stuff, that gravity...

Answer 3

First of all if it was solid, you couldn't dig it as it would be solid, im assuming you mean "if it didn't have a molten core!"

anyway its an interesting question you pose assuming the earth was of course diggable (hmm is that a word) anyway to save on the whole digging upward which would cause a real pain why not dig from both sides of the earth and simply meet in the middle.

however in answer you would have to climb out of a hole in your question.

but here is a further question to puzzle you, if you had dug a hole all the way through the middle and then poured a cup of water into the hole where would it go? meaning would it fall all the way through the earth and out the other side (which would mean it would have to achieve a great speed and fight against the gravity pulling on the other side) or would it simply bounce back and forth like on a bungee rope until settling in the middle and floating in a concentrated focus of gravitation forces.

Answer 4

If the earth was solid, the gravitational properties would not be the same of those if the earth was the way it is now. Theoretically there would still be a pull of gravity but it would be greatly changed. If one where to dig a hole that far, the air pressure would be immense. Similar to that of water pressure but 100 times worse the closer to the core you get. It is theoretically possible to tunnel thru if the earth was solid however not feasible.

Answer 5

Interesting question. Obviously, if the Earth was solid (and survivably cool) all the way through, you could tunnel down to the center. After that, I suppose digging the rest of the tunnel would be just like tunneling upward at any depth. You could do it if you kept the tunnel narrow for friction, slanted it, or brought along climbing tools.

If you did tunnel through this hypothetical Earth, coming out the other side would be just like emerging from any near-vertical tunnel. You would climb out, and assuming the trip hadn't tired you too badly, you would stand normally.

Answer 6

F.Y.I. - the earth's core is solid, it is surrounded by a liquid 'outter' core. If the entire thing were solid you could dig through it, of course keep a couple of things in mind....I'm not sure the tunnel walls could support the tremendous weight of material above as you get very deep, your tunnel might collapse, and you would get lighter the deeper you dig because at any depth d in the earth, the gravity you feel is from the part of the earth with radius (R - d) where R is the radius of the earth at the surface.

Answer 7

as quickly as you attain the Earth's middle the gravity might shift (in case you're able to get in the path of the middle). on the different edge you may then be digging up as a replace of down because of the fact the tension of gravity might have switched around.

Answer 8

As everybody else says the gravity and extremely hot core is a problem, so my suggestion would be - go to the moon, armed with shovel, space suit, flask of tea etc ! try it and let us all know how it went when you get back, happy digging : )

Answer 9

It would be possible if you had access to a lot of pit props, all of the seven dwarfs, a comfy chair and a extremely flame retardant suit.

While your down there say hi to the Morlocks for me.

P.S. the centre of the earth has zero gravity, happy floating!

Answer 10

Wouldn't you probably get stuck at the core since the gravitational force is probably the most strong there that u'd be stuck? Idk but i just dont think its possible at all even if the earth had no molten center, not to mention, no matter where u started to dig on one side of the earth (given that u started on land), your going to hit water on the other, just look @ a globe.