Maybe it’s because we live in Australia and everything seems so far away that often you hear “if only we could drill through the center of the Earth and just go through there”. So I wondered what would actually happen if we would… And I found:
“… That the farthest you can travel from home (and still remain on Earth) is about 7,900 miles (12,700 kilometers) straight down, but you’ll have to journey the long way round to get there: 12,450 miles (20,036 kilometers) over land and sea.
If you would drill though, you can get there in about 42 minutes — that’s short enough for a long lunch, assuming you can avoid Mole Men, prehistoric reptiles and underworld denizens en route. Granted, most Americans would end up in the Indian Ocean, but Chileans could dine out on authentic Chinese, and Kiwis could tuck into Spanish tapas for tea.
Of course, you’d be in for a rough ride. First, you’d have to pass through 22-44 miles (35-70 kilometers) of continental crust (3-6 miles/5-10 kilometers on the ocean floor) followed by 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) of mantle. After that, you’d have to traverse a Mars-sized outer core of liquid iron churning as hot as the sun’s surface (10,000 degrees F, or 5,500 degrees C), then a solid, moon-sized inner core, and, some studies suggest, a liquid innermost core… For sake of argument (and survival) let’s pretend the Earth is a cold, uniform, inert ball of rock. While we’re at it, let’s ignore air resistance.
At the Earth’s surface, gravity pulls on us at 32 feet (9.8 meters) per second squared. That means that, for each second you fall, you speed up by 32 feet per second — but only near Earth’s surface. Gravity is a function of mass, and mass is a property of matter. On the surface, all of Earth’s matter lies below your feet but, as you fall, more and more of it surrounds you, exerting its own gravity. These horizontal tugs counterbalance each other and cancel out, but the increasing proportion of mass above your head exerts a growing counterforce to the proportionately decreasing mass below, so your acceleration slows as you near the core. At the planet’s center, your acceleration due to gravity is zero — Earth’s mass surrounds you, gravity cancels out and you are weightless.
You’re still moving at a heck of a clip, though, so don’t expect to stop there. Halfway to the center, your speed hits 15,000 mph (24,000 kph); 21 minutes after jumping in, you blow past the center at 18,000 mph (29,000 kph). Another 21 minutes later, with gravity slowing you as you go, you reach the far side and stop briefly in midair. Unless someone catches you, you’ll then head back the way you came and start all over again. In our idealized case, this will continue indefinitely, like a pendulum or a spring, in a process called harmonic motion.”
I would say: Let’s just stick to taking the plane…
You must think I’m a genius finding out all of the above. Nope! Credit has to be given to this cool site where I simply copied all the information from. I found it by coincidence and thought it would be fun to share…
Omg so cool. Lol thanks fir sharing
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You are welcome 🙂
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Guess that ruins the old story of digging to China!
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Unfortunately…
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Haha cool write up 😊
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As I’ve mentioned I only found it and basically copy / pasted it. But it was so much fun to find this info. Thanks for coming over.
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Yeah but it was an interesting one 🙂
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It’s tough to find a spot on Earth to drill through that won’t land you in water. There are some great videos on YouTube about this thought experiment, too. Some with lots of math involved and others not so much math. Love it!
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I’d go with the ones with less math…
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Interesting read!
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I’ll have to run this past some of my physicist friends, and later check out the site, to see if this thrill ride is based on “good” science. When it comes to physics, I have noticed that there are more astrophysicists than geophysicists, probably because there is only one known earth, compared to many unknown planets in an endless sky!
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Would be interesting to see if it is backed up by people you know they’re trust worthy.
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