Question that cannot be answered....?

Question

Say if it was possible for someone to dig a hole that went from the top of the earth, right through the middle of it and came out through the bottom. If someone was to jump down this hole, What would happen? Would they get to the middle of the earth then just be suspended in mid air due to gravity pushing down from both sides. Or would they go from one side, right through the earth to the other side, then fall back in the opposite direction, due to gravity pushing them back and fourth???

lol

Answer 1

Mmmmmm

An interesting question to answer..

I would have to say intuition tells me you would speed up as you move towards the center , but that you would be accelorated less and less ( but still accelorated) as you get closer to the center, and then slow down more as you move away from the center Due to friction each time you pass through you would end up a little closer to the middle and would eventually stop.

However this is not really a good model of the situation.
Firstly our general notion of gravity and the way we calculate it treats objects as newtonian point masses. i.e. as if all the mass is at the center of the object. This is not true but for astrophysics it is a reasonable approximation in most cases.
So in order to model your question we would have to look at all the forces acting on the person as they travel through the hole.
The forces perpendicular to your descent will cancel each other out (assuming them to be uniform) otherwise you will be banged back and forth against the side of the hole (ouch)
So the forces we are mainly interested are the up down and forces from your perspective. These would result from the differences between the pull of opposing forces.
At the center the forces opposing each other are equal and therefore if you were not moving you would stay in the same place.
The forces at the edge are all downward( to the center) so you would be accelorated downwards.

Taking into account terminal velocity etc and the forces acting at each point (if they were calculable) you could predict what would happen.
So I think your question is answerable , however I think only an approximation of the answer is possible as the gravitational field operates in all directions at all points and this would change at every point. There probably is no general solution for the effect this would have on a moving body.

Good Luck with the digging !

Answer 2

In theory (assuming one didn't burst into flames due to the molten core, etc.) - you would fall past the middle, reaching a point where your fall wound stop, and then start falling ("rising" from your original perspective) again.

Gravity would push you downwards at terminal velocity, and as you approached the centre of the earth, a second force of gravity ("Anti-gravity"???) would start to slow your descent. Since you already have greater momentum, you will go past the centre - at which time the Gravity will begin to decrease, and the "Anti-Gravity" will increase. The place where you do come to a stop (for a split second) won't be that far from the core...

Upon finally stopping, you would probably slowly start to spin around as the earth rotates around you (too slow to really notice though)

The exact math is far too complicated to figure out - especially considering the effects of subterranian gravity...

(and the amount of crack smoked ;);););););) )

Answer 3

The math said: THE VECTORS FROM THE "BRIM" OF THE CIRCLE ARE AIM TO THE CENTRE, IN POINT OF CENTRE RESULTS WITH ZERO (0) ACTIVITY. Connected with your Q when the body come in the middle of the Earth he will hover on same position (because the activity of the gravitation vectors is 0). That haven't any connection with SMOKING OF THE CRACK! Best Regards and veradisca! Neven.

Answer 4

At least he will be able to travel between continents in much fewer time than aeroplanes, and when he reahces the other side, I'll be there to take his hand :)

Answer 5

you'll get burnt from the heat of the earth's core before you even have time to think.

Answer 6

You will be stuck in time, you can then use teleportation, i have been studying this theory for years

Answer 7

please quit smoking crack