What if............

[Pockets 36]

If I dug a hole straight through the middle of the earth, from England to Australia, assuming I didn’t get obliterated by the earth’s very hot core, and I jumped right down that hole. What would happen?

A)     Would I jump in an just fall out the other side and be in Australia in time for lunch with Auzzie captain and Imogene and digi?

B)      Fall to the middle and the gravity would make me bounce backwards and forwards like a pendulum so my fall would therefore be eternal?

C)      Or as i reach the midway point,  each country would want me to fall to them, so i would be ripped in half and my legs would carry on to Australia and my top half would end up back in Britain for tea with mum?

D)     Lastly could I just land the mid-point and just sit there hovering in the middle of the earth because gravity is pushing me both ways, so i would be suspended in the hole just no going anywhere? 

[Foshkey 49]

I think I read a reddit post about this question a while back. If I recall correctly, two very different things happen depending on if there is air or no air.

No air (a vacuum) is quite simple: due to the conservation of energy here, assuming both ends of the hole are equidistant from the center, you can jump in and you'll reach the other end just fine. Forgot the actual calculations for time as it was extremely complex, with the gravitational constant changing as you get closer and closer to the center. Also recall that you'll be going extremely fast, but you need every bit of speed to get to the other end. Best you not touch the walls.

With air, you're doomed. You'll hit terminal velocity, which is changing due to difference in atmospheric pressure. Speaking of pressure, you would likely die to the pressure change, drastically crushing you. But let's say you got a supersuit that protects you from this insane pressure. Relatively, as if I were to track your location on a map through the earth, I would see your blip fall closer and closer and closer to the center, move slower and slower and slower, and then... stop. At the center. To you, this isn't really a drastic stop, but eventually you'll feel like you're just floating very slowly along, until, years later, you eventually stop. At the center.

[Kimina Tanai 74]

Fun fact, after myself and two other engineers went to see the new Total Recall a few years back, we did a ton of analysis on this. Mostly, however, this was in the domain of maintaining the perception of gravity while traveling through the hole. Our analysis is attached, but suffice to say to make the trip in the time total recall suggested would have resulted in something on the order of 47 Gs.

But...

You can jump in and try to fall out the other side, but because of drag you would fall just short (assuming the earth is a sphere - which it is not). This means unless you have a way to climb out you're going to end up just slowly oscillating between the two sides. This is your option (B). Option (C) isn't going to happen because it's not like the left side of your body is being pulled one way and the right side of your body is being pulled another; instead your entire body is being pulled in both directions, which just ends in each side canceling out and nothing happens. Your will act weightless if you manage to stay in the center (ignoring the whole fact that it's basically going to burn you up).

Once enough resistance has hit you, D will be your final fate, assuming you don't die to the heat. There will be some amount of pull due to the moon and other celestial bodies but not a major amount. All it means is you won't be perfectly centered.

 

 

Edited December 13, 2016 by Kimina Tanai

[Izumi Uchiya MD 214]

The answer is obviously that all the magma in the mantle leaks out onto the surface, and UK and Aus are obliterated. Kind of a dick move there, Pockets.

[T'vaar Dekdarion 12]

Given the planet's magnetic field, could you give yourself a boost by carrying a battery, wrapping yourself in wire, and flipping the switch as you start your descent?  Thereby launching yourself through the planet-cannon?

[Izumi Uchiya MD 214]

4 minutes ago, T'vaar Dekdarion said:

Given the planet's magnetic field, could you give yourself a boost by carrying a battery, wrapping yourself in wire, and flipping the switch as you start your descent?  Thereby launching yourself through the planet-cannon?

Energy you pick up into the battery is lost from your kinetic and potential energy. 

[Izumi Uchiya MD 214]

16 minutes ago, T'vaar Dekdarion said:

 

 

Edited December 14, 2016 by Izumi Uchiya
double post

[cailin 8]

MAG MA

[Onizuki 21]

Didn't we run through this whole thing on slack a few months ago? Like the point was brought up about if the earth hollow or if the mass was just redistributed across the surface thus preserving the earth's total mass. I swear we arrived at bobbing in and out of the hole only losing energy to air friction.

[Skyler Scar 27]

1 hour ago, Onizuki said:

Didn't we run through this whole thing on slack a few months ago? Like the point was brought up about if the earth hollow or if the mass was just redistributed across the surface thus preserving the earth's total mass. I swear we arrived at bobbing in and out of the hole only losing energy to air friction.

Lol I'm pretty sure we did. Also, leave it to the scientists to ruin all hope of imagination and wonder with a super complex and rational explanation. I will give you hope Pockets. Yes, you can dig a hole through the Earth to climb through to the Aussies.

[Onizuki 21]

Why climb when gravity will toss.

[Skyler Scar 27]

Just now, Onizuki said:

Why climb when gravity will toss.

Crawl then? Depends on how big the hole is I suppose.

[Wimwyn 2]

If you dug a hole from the UK to Australia, firstly, you wouldn't pass directly through the middle of the earth, so assuming you didn't die to lack of oxygen, or molten rock, or heat exhaustion or being cooked alive etc etc. You would reach a point towards the middle where gravity made you hit the side of your hole, then you would have a choice between climbing out one side or the other.

Alternately, if you dug a hole from the UK to Australia, Assuming you could pass straight through in 1 jump and survive coming out the other side, you would be jumping from Australia to the UK after finishing your hole on Australian soil.