As requested: If you were to dig a hole through the earth and placed an outhouse on it and then proceeded to..

Question

Proceeded to launch turd torpedoes down the hole, would they exit the hole on the other side of the world and fly upward into the heavens, or hit the face of the person looking down the other side of the hole causing laughter and joy to all?

Answer 1

laughter and joy; LAUGHTER AND JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

It would not fly into the heavens.

Have you ever thrown a ball into the air? It goes up, against the pull of gravity, and then comes back down. If you catch it from the same level you threw it then it would hit your hand with the same speed that you threw it with.

This can be represented by the equation force = mass x acceleration. The mass of the ball stays the same. Assuming air resistance and friction are negligible the only acceleration the ball has is gravity. On the way up, gravity works against the ball, slowing it down until it has stopped. For a moment, when the ball has reached its apex, it will have no velocity. Gravity is still acting on it however. Gravity pulls the ball down, accelerating it the same amount as it decelerated it going up. Therefore, by the time it reaches your hand again it has gathered the same speed.

Regarding the hole in the middle of the earth and the turd torpedo, the same equation applies. F=ma. We will assume the torpedo is compact enough not to disinigrate and will have a constant mass. Again neglect air resistance. Acceleration due to gravity will increase going towards the center of earth and decrease coming away at the same rate because the force of gravity is proportional to an object's distance from the center of the earth.

The torpedo will pick up speed until it reaches the center, then it will begin to slow down. It will then continue downwards (or up, depending on your perspective) and will decelerate at the same rate as when it was coming with the pull of gravity.

When the torpedo reaches the other side it will have lost all speed and will only go as far up from the whole as when it was first released. Accounting for friction, the torpedo would not go as far, and when it started to fall again it would not go as far in the other direction. The torpedo would lose energy until it eventually stabilized at the center of the earth. So, it would not fly into the heavens.

Of course, if the unfortunate person were too close to the hole, it could hit them.

Answer 3

Scenario B would definetly put an upside down frown on my face but what if we substitute the whole, hole through the earth, with just a simple hole in the bottom of the outhouse, then hide behind a tree and watch all the people fall into a vat of poop.

Answer 4

They would hit the center core of the earth and not move because the Gravity is centered there and it's a vacuum. It would actually probably disintegrate.

Answer 5

They'd be stuck in the center of the earth because earth's gravity pulls everything toward the center. It would never reach the other side.

Answer 6

of couse not!!!! gravity pulls things 2 the core of the earth and if it went all the way through it wopuld stop in the middle (where the core is)

Answer 7

I guess you'll have to ask what the person laughing saw. But if they got hit, we'll never know, will we?

Answer 8

wow that question was harder to read than a junior high word problem, but it was about poo, so it's funny, and I just don't really have an answer but I like reading your potty questions dude.

Answer 9

the poor things would try to crawl back to you cos they don't want to leave

Answer 10

they would only go halfway.