Another wild thought: what if you were in.....

[G-T-4-Fan]

....the center of the earth? In a chamber or suite that would protect you from all the lava (practically impossible I know) Let's say you dug a hole in the earth precisely to the center of the earth, and make an exit precisely towards the oposite direction from where you begun, like for me starting in Holland, and digging an exact straight line thrue the center of earth and exit in New Zeeland or something.

If you would jump, you would jump towards New Zeeland because of gravity, but then after the center, you would be pulled back again Then after some falling, would you: be weightless? Be pulled together and explode?

Just a stupid idea I dreamed of last night, immediatly thought: " I have to post this up:idea:?

 

[ND4SPD]

Wow, thats pretty creative thinking, I wonder what would happen. Maybe Famine will explain it all to us....

 

[daan]

You would be crushed by the force of gravity long before you even got anywhere the centre.

 

[vladimir]

You would be crushed by the force of gravity long before you even got anywhere the centre.

why?

gravity is caused by huge masses, like the earth. so if you travel into the aerth, towards the centre, there will be less earth beneath you and more earth above you, thus reducing gravity.

off course gravity also depends on distance, and the core of the earth is more dense and therefore has a higher mass, but it reaches so far that it drags the moon with it and the moon creates tide so i would say the little distance to the dense centre should not make any difference.

so in conclusion i would say you get lighter the closer you get to the centre, as long as your tunnel could withstand the ernormous pressure and you the temperature.

 

[daan]

why?

I don't know

And anyway, there are lizards masquerading as dinosaurs down there. The only way out is to get in a big bowl with James Mason and let the updraft of lava from an erupting volcano bring you back up.

 

[skip0110]

gravity is caused by huge masses, like the earth. so if you travel into the aerth, towards the centre, there will be less earth beneath you and more earth above you, thus reducing gravity.

off course gravity also depends on distance, and the core of the earth is more dense and therefore has a higher mass, but it reaches so far that it drags the moon with it and the moon creates tide so i would say the little distance to the dense centre should not make any difference.

so in conclusion i would say you get lighter the closer you get to the centre, as long as your tunnel could withstand the ernormous pressure and you the temperature.

👍 This is one of the classic textbook examples of a simple harmonic oscillator (force directly proportional to distance from equilibrium). Gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, but mass decreses with the square also, so these cancel leaving a linear relationship.

 

[Lamboracer]

ive thought of this many times and posed the same question to myself. Personaly i think you will be crused in the center, as in PUSHED not pulled, together.

 

[cardude2004]

Wow, I have never thought of something like this, I guess I don't daydream enough.

 

[Gen.]

Since you are at the center of the earth, the gravitational pull on you would be 0, since you have nowhere to accelerate. Not to mention the pressure that would be on you

 

[Solid Lifters]

Wow, I have never thought of something like this, I guess I don't daydream enough.

I'm still stuck with, "How would we sit in a chair if our knees bent back the other way?"

 

[DemonSeed]

I'm still stuck with, "How would we sit in a chair if our knees bent back the other way?"

lol, guess we would have different chairs. and someone would be thinking, how would it be with knees bending the other way? [our usual]

 

[Ev0]

We just did a unit on gravity in Physics, so lets see if I can give a good explanation of what would happen.

Gravity is the force of attraction between any two particles, anywhere in the universe. The Earth is composed of a very large quatity of particles, with each of these particles exerting their own force of attraction on the particles that make up you (or anything for that matter, no pun intended). So, imagine yourself at the exact center of the Earth. Every single particle of the Earth would be trying to pull you away from the center, since you would be at the center of the Earth's mass. So really, if anything were to happen to you, it would most likely be that you would be stretched or pulled apart by the forces of gravity, and not crushed.

I hope that helps, it makes sense according to the theory I've been studying.

 

[skip0110]

Every single particle of the Earth would be trying to pull you away from the center, since you would be at the center of the Earth's mass.

But for every particle pulling you to the left, there is another particle on the opposie side pulling you to the right. Yielding no net force.

If that is confusing, think of all the forces acting on you now. Some are pushing up, some are pulling down. Yet you are not crushed or torn apart.

It can be shown that the portions of the earth's mass located at a greater distannce than you from the center will exert no net force on you.

Figure upcoming.

 

[PS]

But the pulling force would be equal on all sides, so wouldn't it cancel out?

 

[skip0110]

But the pulling force would be equal on all sides, so wouldn't it cancel out?

Exactly.


This is a crossection of the earth.
If you are the black dot, only the gray area will exert a net gravitational pulll on you. The shaded are exerts no net force. The easiest way to show this (and the only way I know) uses a theory involving gravitational flux, which is a little hard to explain here.

 

[Jpec07]

The pulling force wouldn't cancel out altogether. Your body would still accelerate as it flew through the earth to terminal velocity (around 120 MPH), and then go flying past the core at that speed. Once you hit the core, though, your body would begin to decelerate until it stopped (far short of the other side of the planet). After it stopped, it would begin to be pulled back towards the core and be caught in limbo, eventually halting in the center of the earth until the tunnel collapsed.

There is some question as to the terminal velocity, as the gravitational attraction between objects increases as the bodies get closer and closer together (where it just stops). My question is this: would the terminal velocity accelerate until the core was reached with the increased pull of gravity, or would it cancel out as the air became more and more dense? If the earth were devoid of an atmosphere, I would say the first one, but I do not know how it would work.

There is also the misconception that the earth is a perfect sphere. This is not the case. The earth is what we like to call an "oblate spheroid," which is essentially a slightly smushed sphere (think of an ellipse whose shorter axis is a center for rotation. When rotated, the resulting shape is an oblate spheroid). Now, to say a straight tunnel would do the trick for falling through to the other side would not work (unless you were on one of the poles or on the equator). It would not be possible for such a tunnel to exist, as the pull of gravity, although primarily towards the core, is also slightly towards the equator (where there is more mass). Therefore, to fall anywhere near the core, one would need to dig a tunnel that moves towards the core with a slight curve towards the equator. Even then you would not continue to the other side of the world, as your curved path would continue in a rapidly decaying orbit until you reach limbo at the core.

It is an interesting concept to think about...

 

[Ev0]

But for every particle pulling you to the left, there is another particle on the opposie side pulling you to the right. Yielding no net force.

If that is confusing, think of all the forces acting on you now. Some are pushing up, some are pulling down. Yet you are not crushed or torn apart.

It can be shown that the portions of the earth's mass located at a greater distannce than you from the center will exert no net force on you.

Figure upcoming.

I was getting at the fact that you would remain in limbo since the net force would be equal on all sides, I just forgot to explicitly state that.

 

[G-T-4-Fan]

The pulling force wouldn't cancel out altogether. Your body would still accelerate as it flew through the earth to terminal velocity (around 120 MPH), and then go flying past the core at that speed. Once you hit the core, though, your body would begin to decelerate until it stopped (far short of the other side of the planet). After it stopped, it would begin to be pulled back towards the core and be caught in limbo, eventually halting in the center of the earth until the tunnel collapsed.

There is some question as to the terminal velocity, as the gravitational attraction between objects increases as the bodies get closer and closer together (where it just stops). My question is this: would the terminal velocity accelerate until the core was reached with the increased pull of gravity, or would it cancel out as the air became more and more dense? If the earth were devoid of an atmosphere, I would say the first one, but I do not know how it would work.

There is also the misconception that the earth is a perfect sphere. This is not the case. The earth is what we like to call an "oblate spheroid," which is essentially a slightly smushed sphere (think of an ellipse whose shorter axis is a center for rotation. When rotated, the resulting shape is an oblate spheroid). Now, to say a straight tunnel would do the trick for falling through to the other side would not work (unless you were on one of the poles or on the equator). It would not be possible for such a tunnel to exist, as the pull of gravity, although primarily towards the core, is also slightly towards the equator (where there is more mass). Therefore, to fall anywhere near the core, one would need to dig a tunnel that moves towards the core with a slight curve towards the equator. Even then you would not continue to the other side of the world, as your curved path would continue in a rapidly decaying orbit until you reach limbo at the core.

It is an interesting concept to think about...

Yeah it's VERY interesting
Well, I asked this in school too in my class, not to the science teacher, but just a "what if" question to my class

My theorie is >NOW< (correcting now: beginning in the north pole, and exiting on the south pole) is that you would first drop down, and then you would "jump" again, followed by a fall again, just repeat this process, I think that your body would EXPLODE under the pressure of this falling and "jumping", cause actually I think you can compare it with a rubber bouncing ball: it falls, and suddenly it jumps back again, cause if you pass that gravity point, your actually going EXACTLY the oposite way from when you began falling.....get the idea?

If that direction change is true, then the earth might really have a different shape LOL!!! Or am I getting too confused now?

 

[DQuaN]

If that direction change is true, then the earth might really have a different shape LOL!!! Or am I getting too confused now?

The Earth isn't perfectly spherical. It is actually wider than it is tall.

 

[G-T-4-Fan]

The Earth isn't perfectly spherical. It is actually wider than it is tall.

No didn't mean it that way, just...............well..........ignore my comment..........I was talking too much bull

 

[Famine]

But for every particle pulling you to the left, there is another particle on the opposie side pulling you to the right. Yielding no net force.

If that is confusing, think of all the forces acting on you now. Some are pushing up, some are pulling down. Yet you are not crushed or torn apart.

Imagine four horses. Each has the same strength as the others. They are attached to your four limbs and progress away from you in "opposite" directions (90 degrees apart from each other).

Each horse's force in one direction is cancelled out by the force of the horse going in the other direction. There is no net force. You'll still be torn limb from limb though.

 

[LoudMusic]

I heard the center is made of gold. Or was it cheese ... ? I can't remember. Anyway, it'll be dark and I'm afraid of the dark. So count me out.

 

[DQuaN]

Must be gold. Everyone knows that it's the moon that is made of cheese 👍

 

[F1GTR]

Ahem,cheddar cheese

 

[DQuaN]

NO! Wendsleydale

 

[LoudMusic]

Shooooooot ... gold? I'm there man! Race to the center!

 

[DQuaN]

When (if) you get back you can tell us what gravity did to you!

 

[LoudMusic]

Well, I feel a little constrained, but other than that there don't appear to be any side effects. By the way, no gold. Just a cream filling like a Twinkie.

(:

 

[vladimir]

Imagine four horses. Each has the same strength as the others. They are attached to your four limbs and progress away from you in "opposite" directions (90 degrees apart from each other).

Each horse's force in one direction is cancelled out by the force of the horse going in the other direction. There is no net force. You'll still be torn limb from limb though.

gravitation is not a rope between two points. that example is far to simple.

gravitation would be a rope between every particle of every horse and every particle of your body.

one of the four horses would not only be attached to one of your arms, but also to the other arm and to the legs.

in the centre of the earth, the gravity of the mass above you will pull your head up, but also your feet and everything else. the same with the mass beneath you that will not only pull your feet down but also your arms, head and everything.

so the gravitational forces will not tear you apart.

 

[Famine]

Did I say it would?

I said that there is no net force when two horses of equal strength pulling in opposite directions.

I wasn't using it as proof of anything other than that "no net force" doesn't necessarily equate to nothing.