I am asking this because if you go anywhere on the earth (even the bottom) you'll be standing right side up. So lets say hypothetically you dug a hole from north pole to south pole and jumped in the hole starting at the north pole. When you are falling in the hole, would you end up coming out of the hole feet first? would you fly out of the hole because of gravity from when you first jumped?
When you answer the question, forget about the HOT core of the earth and the size of the world. im just talkin about the physics
2007-06-01 22:50:23 · 10 answers · asked by hannah l 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Isn't is amazing how many people are incapable of comprehending the purely hypothetical? No, if you went straight through without tumbling along the way, you'd end up on your head.
Note that, as you travel around the globe in the more traditional manner, your body slowly rotates along the way. Find a globe of the earth and do a little two-finger walk around it (or imagine doing so); you'll see what I mean.
Incidentally, gravity actually *drops* gradually to zero as you approach the center and, yes, sans friction, you would reach the other end, fall back and oscillate back and forth from one end to the other.
2007-06-02 05:38:18 · answer #1 · answered by Dr. R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well apart from the fact that the molten core would prevent you making a nice clean hole and would also kill you. I would imagine that you would fall though the centre, out the other side, and if there were no air resistance or anything like that you would begin oscillating, you would get to the same height on the other side of the earth before falling back down into the hole to carry on the process, like a pendulum. With air resistance you won't get as far on each fall or swing or however you describe it. You would eventually slow down and hang in the middle, with gravity pulling on all sides in a manner I imagine would be rather uncomfortable.
2016-05-19 01:57:16 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I always imagined that if you took away all the factors other then gravity in this scenario (and made your body resitant to the increased gravity at the core) then if you jumped in the hole you'd come out the other side but then get pulled back into the hole and shot back out the other side of the earth and then pulled back in again etc etc until you ran out of energy and were just stuck in the middle.
But yeah say there was no air in the tunnel through the earth and the gravity at all places through the tunnel were unifrom (or increasing unifromly) then you should pop out the other end the same orientation that you went in.
2007-06-01 23:50:41 · answer #3 · answered by Chimbles 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Have you tried jumping off a cliff head-first or feet-first, or noticed someone do it on videos or in real life? The final orientation of the person depends on many factors, namely the torque experienced when jumping off, wind resistance etc.
However, suppose that you jump feet first down a hole in the ground and came up on the other side of the Earth, I guess that you would most likely be upside down.
On top of that, you will oscillate back and forth until you finally settle somewhere in the middle of the Earth's core.
Of course, assuming that you'll be alive to see it.
2007-06-01 23:06:31 · answer #4 · answered by Loong 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think what would happen, neglecting the hot core, is you would dig down to the center of the earth, becoming lighter and lighte as you got deeper, until at the center of the earth you would actually be weightless. If you brought equipment to cling to the side of your hole, you would then have to dig up, away from the center of the earth, so you would actually feel like you were digging up.
If you did manage to dig up to the other side of the earth and then jump into your hole, you would emerge from the hole on the other side of the earth feet first, or upside down, if you jumped into the hole feet first.
2007-06-09 21:30:15 · answer #5 · answered by Dennis H 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, given the friction provided by air in the hole, you will not reach the other side. But if we disregard the friction, you will emerge feet first, and the moment you reach ground level at the other end you will start falling back in. If there is no friction this process of falling to one end and then the other will continue for ever. But if we consider air friction, then we will slowly fall shorter of the other surface till finally we remain in the center, not moving in any direction. Yes we will be weightless and gravityless.
2007-06-01 23:14:34 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Feet first of course and after freezing your toes, without any other force present (other than gravity), you would oscillate back and forth from south to north and back more and being weightless but moving at max speed while passing through the center of the earth.
Each portion of earth exerts a vertical force on you. At any point in your travel there is stuff above you and stuff below you. Force on you from each earth portion is also proportional to the vertical component of its distance away.
2007-06-09 19:25:33 · answer #7 · answered by anonEmouse 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I seriously think you would fall to the center then, (not sure on this part) be either crushed from the force of gravity as in imploded, or you would explode being pulled in all directions. Either way seems quite messy.
2007-06-01 23:05:55 · answer #8 · answered by Wade C 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If you are talking about the physics you can't ignore the physics but if you could you would come up feet first.
2007-06-06 06:09:12 · answer #9 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you live to tell. you'll stop at the core at the center of earth so
hypothetically you would be climbing the rest of the way.
which """" you don't usually live long enough.
But your welcome to try. What kind of shovel you got?
2007-06-09 15:10:17 · answer #10 · answered by ya-who 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋