Ok, a hole is drilled from one side of the Earth to the other, and heat is negated. Now what would happen if a person jumped in one side of the hole?
Assuming that you didn’t brush the sides of the hole, you fall through the earth, come out the other side to a height slightly less than your height when you originally jumped (due to air friction), and fall back through… this would continue for a while, until friction had worn away all of your momentum, and you’d come to rest (floating) at the center of mass of the earth…
At least, I think so…
I’d like to try this, it sounds like a fun ride!!
See I thought that at first too but, Ive come to the conclusion that you wouldnt float. Gravity, I think, would rip you apart, as I think I remember from school, gravity is the pull of one object on another, and since the Earth is much larger and has more mass than a human, he would be pulled in all directions by the earth, thus ripping him apart. THoughts?
I don’t think that you would suffer from abrasion from the air… I seem to remember reading somewhere that critical velocity* for a human being is around 150 mph, and I don’t think that’s fast enough to suffer from wind erossion.
I still can’t decide on the gravity thing though… one wonders if there was any noticable gravitic change on the moho project.
** did I get that right, is the term for the maximum speed something can fall it’s critical velocity? I really need to know…*
I don’t think you’d be ripped apart… right now your body is being acted upon by the mass of the entire earth… it’s pulling you down at 1 G! (But if you hang by your arms from a tree branch you are not ripped apart) If you were at the center of the earth, however, the mass of the earth would be pulling you simultaneously from all directions at once, so I THINK you would float (I was a physics major, once… but now I teach English, so I could be wrong about this)
Realistically, though, the mass of the earth is NOT perfectly uniform in its distribution, so you’d probably be pulled sloooooooowly to one side and come to rest against the side of the hole…
Anyone else? Am I full of hooey?
True, Tristan… terminal velocity for a human body is around 100- 150 mph (depending on your position as you fall) but I think the air friction would still slow you down enough to make you gradually come to a halt at the center… if you were in a perfect vacuum, then you’d keep oscillating back and forth forever…
BTW… I believe the correct term is “terminal velocity” for the fastest speed a thing can move in a given situation…
Ya know you mentioned about the Earth not being uniform, and thats just a funny mental picture. A guy pressed against the side of the Earth, face smushed against the dirt,saying “Help” meekly.
Aye it is terminal velocity.
I don’t think you’d be mushed there… just held lightly by microgravity caused by a slight imperfection in mass distribution… you should be able to push away from the side pretty easily!
Keep in mind that right now you have the entire mass of the earth pulling you from one direction, but if you are laying face first on the ground, you can push yourself up pretty easily… unless the bully from my 8th grade class is sitting on you (as I recall, it was more difficult, then…)
It would depend who they were. If they were a newbie they would be advised to search Cecil’s columns.
Was that directed towards yours truly?
May have been directed at you, LAN… but do not fret!!!
Oh, and welcome, by the way…
Why worry? It only causes undue stress. And thanks for the welcome =)
What if you fell into a tube through the earth?
Thanks for the link, but I wanted to pick everyones brain on this one =)
LAN, people here sometimes get annoyed if you ask a question that has been discussed before… but usually they are polite about it, or post a link to it, as AudreyK did.
Generally speaking, it’s best to do a search about a question before you post it (though I don’t see anything wrong with reposting Q’s that require opinions, so that others who didn’t see the thread before can throw in their 2 cents)…
[sub]grumble grumble
See if I dig up a link for you bozos ever again…**
If you want to pick everyone’s brains, try doing it with an original question, not something that’s been hacked to death.
don’t fret LANkrypt0, I’ve been asking questions previously asked since I discovered SD… and been told off for it! i think i’m getting the hang of things now
great question by the way. nothing to add except i would imagine you’d get heavier as you approached the core. there’s nothing to propel you past the core, only the momentum gained approaching it, so you’d never see the surface again, that’s for sure [?]… oh good God, i don’t know, trotting off to read AudreyK’s classic dig.