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If I were to dig a hole to the very core of the
Earth, then jump, would I float because the
gravity is all converging on one spot?
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Question Date: 2001-01-15 | | Answer 1:
It's funny you should ask this question. I
remember a homework assignment in college in which
we were asked a similar question. The question we
had was, what would happen if you dug a hole all
the way through the earth(from one side to the
other, right through the middle) and dropped an
object into the hole? The answer is as
follows.
We dig the proverbial hole to
China. We toss a stone into the hole. The stone
is pulled down towards the center of the earth.
It falls all the way to the middle of the earth
once it reaches the middle, theres no more pull of
gravity. But the stone is going pretty fast, and
there's nothing at the middle of the earth to make
it stop (since we dug all the stuff out). So the
stone would keep on moving, going straight on up
the other side of the hole, towards China. It
would go up a ways, then (due to the pull of
gravity) fall back in the other direction, back
towards the center. This back and forth
oscillation around either side of the middle point
of the earth continues for a while. Eventually it
stops, because all the while there's air that
slows down the motion of the stone. The stone
would stop right in the center of the
earth.
In the homework problem I mentioned
earlier, we were asked to assume that the earth
has a uniform density throughout, and that there's
no air resistance. (Physicists often make
unrealistic assumptions like this.) We then found
that the stone would oscillate forever, without
stopping. Each time it moved back and forth, it
would come all the way up to the surface of the
earth, before falling back down again, and each
cycle of oscillation would take about an hour and
a half. In other words, if you dropped the stone
in the hole, an hour and a half later it would
come back up to the same spot you dropped it from.
Pretty cool, but keep in mind that it wouldnt
actually happen like that because the air
resistance that we conveniently ignored actually
has a significant effect. It would actually
happen more like I described in the second
paragraph, above.
| | Answer 2:
You might have a little difficulty digging a hole
to Earth's center, since the core is molten,
but the idea is intriguing.If you tried
instead to dig a hole to the center of a body
that does not have a molten core, like a small
moon, you could actually test your hypothesis.
In either case, molten or not, at the center of a
spherical body of uniform density, the
gravitational attraction is evenly distributed
in all directions. The net result is that if you
were to crawl to the center, as you approached
the center you would feel progressively
lighter. At the center, you would float. Now,
imagine that you bore a hole straight through
the center from one side of the small moon to
the other. If you stood at one mouth of the hole
and dropped a rock into the hole, what do you
think would happen?
| | Answer 3:
You would indeed float at the center of the earth
(though I dare say it would be hot at the core of
the earth!). You might not want to jump all the
way from the surface, though, unless you dug your
hole all the way to the other side of the planet,
because you'd hit the bottom of your hole still
falling.
Here's a question for you to try:
Pretend the earth is a uniformly dense perfect
sphere of matter, and drill a hole straight
through the earth(small enough that it doesn't
affect the gravitation much). Try using Newton's
laws of mechanics and gravitation to relate motion
through the hole to the motion of a weight
attached to a spring.
| | Answer 4:
The simple answer to your question is that it
would be very difficult to dig a hole to the
center of the Earth because the immense pressure
at depth would cause the sides of your hole to
collapse. The interior of the Earth is also very
hot so you would get cooked on the way down. Of
course that's no fun and doesn't get to the core
of your question.
The mass of the Earth
exerts a force on everything, pulling objects
towards its center which is why we fall until we
run into some immovable object between us an the
Earth's center (for example, the ground). If
there were a hole all the way to the center of the
Earth, we would fall, accelerating until we
reached terminal velocity (where the resistance of
the air prevents us from going any faster). The
problem is, we have momentum when falling so we
would go right through the center of the Earth.
If everything is being pulled toward the center of
the Earth and our hole goes all the way through
the Earth, what do you think will happen after we
fall past the center of the Earth? Will we shoot
out the other side or slow down?
| | Answer 5:
Ah, a very good question. This is often asked in
a Physics class. Because of the way gravity
works, the gravitational force that an object
feels (say you) due to another object (say the
Earth) is proportional to the mass of each object.
However, if you are traveling through a tunnel
in the Earth, then the gravitational force that
you feel is not proportional to the entire mass of
the Earth but to the amount of the mass that is
contained within a sphere that is centered at the
center of mass of the Earth and has a radius equal
to the distance you are from the center.
I know this is very wordy. To put it
another way: as you travel through your tunnel
towards the center of the Earth, the amount of
gravitational force you experience decreases from
the surface value (your weight, in pounds for
example) until at the center there is no
gravitational force on you at all. A way to
picture this is that if you are at the center of
mass of the Earth there is an equal amount of
matter surrounding you in all directions. Why
would you be pulled in a particular
direction?
So let's say you jump into your
tunnel. You start falling freely and accelerate
towards the center of the Earth due to the force
of gravity. As you fall, your speed keeps
increasing but more so at the beginning than as
you approach the center because the amount of
gravitational force pulling on you is decreasing.
When you reach the center, your speed is not
increasing at all but you are still moving very
fast. So what happens? Do you get stuck in the
center? Nope. You overshoot the center and
keep on moving. Now gravity is pulling you in the
direction opposite to your motion and thus slows
you down. A little at first and then increasingly
as you get closer to the surface until finally, at
the surface, you pop out and your speed is just
around zero. If you want to, you can jump back in
and pop out on the other side again.
This
of course assumes that you can dig the tunnel and
survive the heat during the trip. It also assumes
there is nothing opposing your motion such as air
resistance. What do you think would be different
if there was air in the tunnel to oppose your
motion?
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