And you jumped in it feet first would you come out the other end feet first? if not where would you turn round and how? If you did come out feet first you would be upside down to the other people.
2007-07-10 06:55:08 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
In all cases for your scenario, you would never come out the other end. Assuming air in the tunnel, you would encounter increasing air resistance until you had about 1/3 the mass of the earth above you, then lessening air pressure until you got to the centre of the earth, then increasing again as you moved back towards the other side. It would again begin to drop off as you reached the point where only 1/3 the mass of the earth was above you on your way out.
However, you wouldn't get that far out, as air resistance would stop you well short of that point. You would then oscillate around the centre of the earth until you came to a stop.
Without air, the same thing would happen, but you would get quite a bit closer to coming out the other side. But you wouldn't make it, despite the lack of air resistance.
The explanation for this comes from the fact that the earth is NOT a point source of gravity. For all objects outside it's surface, it can (and is) treated as one.
However, once you get inside the earth, things change. As soon as you are under the earth's surface, it begins to pull you back up, and reduces the pull of gravity, slowing your rate of acceleration. Therefore, you never get going fast enough to actually make it all the way back to the other surface.
Most people realise that at the centre of the earth, you're weightless, but they ignore the fact that it is a gradual, cumulative effect that means you can't fall through the earth, even if you have a tunnel. It would require some propulsion.
2007-07-10 08:36:23 · answer #1 · answered by ianmacpherson55 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Earth does not have a 'top' or 'bottom'. It is not flat but round, and objects on the surface are pulled towards the center no matter where they are on the surface. So someone standing on the opposite side of the world as you would be upside down relative to you but would feel absolutely normal themselves.
If you mean the surface and the center, then you would just fall towards the center (accelerating more and more slowly) until you reached the center, where you would hit the end of the tunnel and stop. This is assuming the tunnel is closed off and that it is built to insulate and protect against the heat and magma outside. If you built a tunnel all the way through the Earth and jumped in, then you would fall through the middle and a short distance up the other side, then back and through the middle and shorter distance up the first side, and so on like a pendulum until you came to rest at the center. On the other hand, if you sucked all the air out of the tunnel so it was a vacuum, and jumped in in a space suit, you would fall all the way through and come right up about to the surface on the other side, then back and forth and so on forever until you caught onto something. Either way, there is no reason for you to turn around anywhere because there is no angular force pushing on you.
2007-07-10 14:02:11 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
You don't have to turn round if you don't want to and you will come out upside down. You will find that the effect of gravity reduces to weightlessness when you hit the centre of the Earth. Then as you go past the center gravity comes back and you will feel upside down.
2007-07-10 14:01:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps you would turn round in the centre due to the gravitational force so that you would end up coming out the other side of the earth the "correct" way up with your feet on the ground.
2007-07-10 18:52:41 · answer #4 · answered by Beanbag 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, you won't come out at the other end and may end up oscillating to and fro (assume there is no frictional loss and assuming that the earth is solid, which it is not). If you succeed in coming out, you would indeed be upside down on the other side.
2007-07-10 14:00:39 · answer #5 · answered by Swamy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you did it, you'd probably come out feet first. If you did it with a cat, however, the gyro-feline effect would right the cat once it passed the center and cause it to come out head first (unless you strapped a piece of bread, butter-side-out, to its back).
2007-07-10 14:27:28 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I personaly would come out sideways, because as long as we're imagining anything is possiable, right?
2007-07-10 13:59:50 · answer #7 · answered by secret.sunrise 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋