In conjuction with my last question" A man dropped into a whole that runs through the Earth and out the other side" which i have some excellent answers to. I will choose one soon but i have another poser?? If, like the majority have said that the man who falls through would end up in the centre of the tunnel (centre of the earth), Would he be suspended in animation, floating, or crushed by gravity?
2007-01-25 00:04:24 · 11 answers · asked by jlx02000 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The centre of the earth might be a nuclear fusion reactor, the source of the earth's heat. If you excavated so much material by building that tunnel the dead centre of the earth would change location, correct?...because you have displaced the mass of the earth. Changing the earth in such a profound way might make this fusion reactor do something crazy like destroy the earth in an almighty nuclear explosion.
Edit:
Pepinos should (if you'll pardon the pun) have dug a little deeper into this before dismissing anyone else's answer as irrelevant.
However I should have said might be a nuclear fission rather than nuclear fusion reactor...
http://www.discover.com/en/issues/aug-02/cover/
"Earth, says geophysicist J. Marvin Herndon, is a gigantic natural nuclear power plant. We live on its thick shield, while 4,000 miles below our feet a five-mile-wide ball of uranium burns, churns, and reacts, creating the planet's magnetic field as well as the heat that powers volcanoes and continental-plate movements."
2007-01-25 00:13:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
If he were to pass through a tunnel, wearing an asbestos suit, he would begin to bounce from one end of the tunnel to the other (oscillation). If, for example, the tunnel runs from the north pole to the south pole, a man falling in it would oscillate between the poles (until his kinetic energy is spent in friction, mostly, thus amortizing his movement and leaving him floating in the center).
By the way, all the other answers are irrelevant: the center of the earth is not a fusion reactor and there are a million ways this man could die (lack of oxygen, hitting the walls of the tunnel, heat etc etc). There are also a million reasons why this would be technically impossible to do (molten core is not amenable to tunneling, no 3200km drills etc). My understanding is that the point of the question is to explore the behavior of the earth's field of gravity.
2007-01-25 00:15:44 · answer #2 · answered by Pepinos 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Quote from an article linked as source:
About four hundred years ago– sometime in the latter half of the 17th century– Isaac Newton received a letter from the brilliant British scientist and inventor Robert Hooke. In this letter, Hooke outlined the mathematics governing how objects might fall if dropped through hypothetical tunnels drilled through the Earth at varying angles. Though it seems that Hooke was mostly interested in the physics of the thought experiment, an improbable yet intriguing idea fell out of the data: a dizzyingly fast transportation system.
2007-01-25 02:01:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Forget about the temperature (about 5000'C), let's consider what happens to the man's charred remains! Pressure there is 14 million times atmospheric pressure if you weren't in a supportive tube, I imagine that even if you were the air pressure on you would be huge (no figure for that). A pile of air molecules miles high, all bearing down on you. If you were crushed it would be by the air pressure, not by gravity. Gravity would be effectively zero so you would be floating like in space. See my references below.
2007-01-25 00:28:26 · answer #4 · answered by CT 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Assuming that the tunnel partitions save out the warmth from the middle, and that a ventilation gadget saved the air interior the tube at room temperature, he could finally end up table certain on the centre of the earth floating weightless only like in area. although the air tension there could be very extreme. i do no longer think of it may be sufficient to crush him, yet i ask your self no count if the tension of the air could be sufficient to coach it into liquid (or possibly a solid) at that temperature, wherein case he could in all probability be crushed via it and could drown as he could be no longer able to respire. If the tunnel had doorways in it that allowed the air tension to be ordinary then he might desire to stay fairly thankfully on the centre of the earth. initiate digging, and deliver me a postcard once you get there.
2016-12-16 13:05:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
As the hole is open at both ends the air pressure would be higher than normal atmospheric due to the extra height, but not enough to harm the man.
If, however, the force of gravity is going to crush him, then the walls of the hole would also be crushed - end of story - I think
2007-01-25 04:33:57 · answer #6 · answered by Norrie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
None of the options, the centre of the earth has a rough temperature of 7,000 degrees so he would be burned alive! (Not a nice thought)
2007-01-25 00:09:20 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the earths core is molten rock he would be fried long before he got within miles of the centre !
2007-01-25 00:08:48 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think he'd be burnt to death and compacted to resemble a burnt peanut, floating in the middle of the tunnel
2007-01-25 00:19:12 · answer #9 · answered by PvteFrazer 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He'd be fried because the Earth's core is molten rock.
2007-01-25 00:07:19 · answer #10 · answered by Del Piero 10 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋