Put tube right through earth - jump in

Jumpy · 18-02-2009 09:24AM

PeakOutput wrote: »

if it was a vaccuum then maybe otherwise you would reach terminal velocity after 10 secs of falling and it would only take 10 secs on the other side of the middle to slow you down

you would eventually stop in the middle but weather there is any gravity there or not is a different story. i would think there would be gravity from each side seens as that is were the mass of rock is and thats what causes gravity isnt it? so you should be able to walk on the walls

+1

Terminal velocity would be your biggest problem.

But if it were me I would drop a rock in from the other side as a sort of "side experiment" to see what happens when you meet it.

kowloon · 18-02-2009 09:31AM

If it hits the sea, the whole thing will fill up with water. Then the heat from inside the tube will boil the water, which will in turn cause massive cloud cover and the dawning of a new ice age. Dennis Quaid warns us, but we don't listen.

Dyr · 18-02-2009 09:54AM

The greens would stop us chucking anything into it :mad:

kowloon · 18-02-2009 10:00AM

Bambi wrote: »

The greens would stop us chucking anything into it :mad:

Giant composter?

chakotha · 18-02-2009 10:17AM

You would only feel the gravity of what matter is inside your radius.

Gravity from all matter outside your radius will exactly cancel the gravitational effect of the equivalent matter opposite.

So as you descend, the mass attracting you is also decreasing, so presumably this will slow your acceleration?

OldGoat · 18-02-2009 10:24AM

If you drill through the planet then some danged humoungous galaxy sized alium is gonna thread it like a bead and dangle the planet as an earring from it's third vestigial lobe.

Spore · 18-02-2009 10:25AM

For Chrisssakes! Anyone with less than 1000 posts posting this thread would be ridiculed! I mean, come on "A tube throught the earth" great thread... Sheesh...

18-02-2009 10:29AM

MooseJam wrote: »

Ok guys - we put a tube right through the earth - in one end out the other - tube is heat proof etc - then we jump in, what happens ?

Gravity would keep us stuck in the core.No?

eZe^ · 18-02-2009 10:58AM

You'd oscillate like a spring. Back and forth.

phasers · 18-02-2009 11:03AM

Save the effort guys, just drop a few jars of coins

spudster101 · 18-02-2009 02:56PM

This idea is simply preposterous.
The core is in constant spin so you cant maintain the hole in the first place.
Jeez didnt ye watch that film The Core.:rolleyes:

TPD · 18-02-2009 03:37PM

I asked a teacher this when I was about 6. Rather than give their opinion, or even humour a 6 year old child, they simply said it can't be done. I replied: 'Thats why I said 'IF''. They told me to be quiet. Ruined my day.

Overflow · 18-02-2009 03:37PM

ciano1 wrote: »

We end up in australia of course

Can't think of any other outcomes:P

And how do you figure that? Do all straight lines lead to Australia ?

Terry · 18-02-2009 03:49PM

kowloon wrote: »

If it hits the sea, the whole thing will fill up with water. Then the heat from inside the tube will boil the water, which will in turn cause massive cloud cover and the dawning of a new ice age. Dennis Quaid warns us, but we don't listen.

WE DIDN'T LISTEN!!!

spudster101 wrote: »

This idea is simply preposterous.
The core is in constant spin so you cant maintain the hole in the first place.
Jeez didnt ye watch that film The Core.:rolleyes:

Ha Ha!

TPD wrote: »

I asked a teacher this when I was about 6. Rather than give their opinion, or even humour a 6 year old child, they simply said it can't be done. I replied: 'Thats why I said 'IF''. They told me to be quiet. Ruined my day.

Ha Ha!

Overflow wrote: »

And how do you figure that? Do all straight lines lead to Australia ?

Ha Ha!

Spore wrote: »

For Chrisssakes! Anyone with less than 1000 posts posting this thread would be ridiculed! I mean, come on "A tube throught the earth" great thread... Sheesh...

Is the above rudicule sufficient?

loyatemu · 18-02-2009 04:23PM

google maps has an app called "dig a hole through the earth" this tells us that a hole started at Dublin would come out about 500 miles south-east of NewZealand:

hole.JPG

TPD · 18-02-2009 04:38PM

Terry wrote: »

Is the above rudicule sufficient?

Methinks he meant if the OP had under 1000 posts.

And damn you for picking on me!

Cookie_Monster · 18-02-2009 04:38PM

MooseJam wrote: »

Ok guys - we put a tube right through the earth - in one end out the other - tube is heat proof etc - then we jump in, what happens ?

If you discount friction you wouldcome out the other end at the same speed you jumped in at due to the effects of momentum and gravity, at first helping you, then once you pass centre it will act againt you.

Including friction, you will slow down much earlier and will not have enough momentum to exit and end up oscillating around the centre for a while until becoming stationary at the centre

Dubh Geannain · 18-02-2009 06:06PM

You could dig a gently sloping tunnel and freewheel all the way to wherever.

Then when you get there, you'd have to dig your way back up to the surface

tech77 · 18-02-2009 06:19PM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

If you discount friction you wouldcome out the other end at the same speed you jumped in at due to the effects of momentum and gravity, at first helping you, then once you pass centre it will act againt you.

Including friction, you will slow down much earlier and will not have enough momentum to exit and end up oscillating around the centre for a while until becoming stationary at the centre

Yes of course... that's exactly what would happen.
Just after you got incinerated.

Just read the OP again, sorry

TPD · 18-02-2009 06:22PM

It's heatproof.

Actually, depending on the width of the tunnel, it might suck all the atmosphere from around the earth. Now that'd be interesting.

MarkR · 18-02-2009 06:51PM

Things to watch out for

Mole People
Centripetal force - unless you drill through the axis that the earth is spinning on, you'll bounce of the sides so much that your bloody corpse will decompose in the middle. Ruining it for the rest of us.
Aussies throwing pommies down the hole.
People ****ting into the hole to see what would happen
Convection currents - Hotter on other side of the world where it exits.
Sea pouring into the middle
Other stuff

Turd Ferguson · 18-02-2009 07:05PM

I actually met Steven Hawking today and I asked him his thoughs on what would happen.
He said "This program is not responding. To return to Windows and check the status of the program, click Cancel. If you chose to end the program immediately, you will lose any unsaved data. To end the program now, click End Now."
What an odd fellow.

18-02-2009 07:05PM

since ur in between all the gravity, im guessing you'll get pulled in each direction and die really painfully..

it would be so cool if ya jus fell into sydney, out a big pipe and onto a bouncy castle tho

missingtime · 18-02-2009 07:15PM

What does oscillate mean?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 18-02-2009 07:15PM

loyatemu wrote: »

google maps has an app called "dig a hole through the earth" this tells us that a hole started at Dublin would come out about 500 miles south-east of NewZealand:

hole.JPG

Hows this done? Or do you mean Google Earth?

D_murph · 19-02-2009 12:40AM

I vote we let Mythbusters have a go at it

ayapatrick · 19-02-2009 12:48AM

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

If you discount friction you wouldcome out the other end at the same speed you jumped in at due to the effects of momentum and gravity, at first helping you, then once you pass centre it will act againt you.

Including friction, you will slow down much earlier and will not have enough momentum to exit and end up oscillating around the centre for a while until becoming stationary at the centre

Exactly what i was goin ta say!;)

Sleipnir · 19-02-2009 01:01AM

If such a thing were possible, what would actually happen is that you would accelerate and fall to the centre after which you would start to decelerate until you reached the surface on the other side where you would reach 0 again. Right at the where you would come out of the hole.

Oddly enough, no matter where the tunnel starts from and finishes, it takes the same amount of time to get there; 42 minutes.
Tunnel from Dublin to Australia? 42 minutes
Tunnel from London to New York? 42 minutes.
Beijing to Paris? 42 minutes.
Rio to Bangkok? 42 minutes.
Termonfeckin to Skeheenarinky? 42 minutes!

Captain Chaos · 19-02-2009 01:08AM

How would it take the same time seeing as the earth is not a perfect globe, as in its squashed at the poles and bloats at the equator. Then there is the factor that not all land mass it at the same height above or below MSL.

Sleipnir · 19-02-2009 01:10AM

Captain Chaos wrote: »

How would it take the same time seeing as the earth is not a perfect globe, as in its squashed at the poles and bloats at the equator. Then there is the factor that not all land mass it at the same height above or below MSL.

Give or take a few seconds either side. If the earth were a perfect globe, it would take 42 minutes and 12 seconds.

Put tube right through earth - jump in

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