falling through hole and into china PARADOX?

recently, for some reason i was thinking about those cartoons where you see the person fall through a hole...only to appear in china...

lets look at this for a second....

lets ignore the logic of a crust and a molten core at the center of the earth and say there is a hole deep enough that if you were to fall through you would end up in china...ok

1*now my question is, would you come out of the hole literally "flying" out? with your legs facing upwards and evrything?


2*or once you get towards the center of the earth would gravity slow you down, enough to the point where you would be able to crawl out of the hole?

the problem with the second one is, that its stating you can fall through a hole, and instead of accelerating and splatting to your death you simply slow down?

or is this just another case of cartoon physics?

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hhmm.. ive never thought of that one...

however like you said..i think this is another case of cartoons and physics bending the rules of reality once again

You could just bounce back and forth until the gravity effects equaulize with your momentum, get stuck in the core area and cook.

Originally posted by mileysubet
You could just bounce back and forth until the gravity effects equaulize with your momentum, get stuck in the core area and cook.

or realistically speaking.......THIS

I wish someone would do this and then actually be able t o answer all of those hollow earth threads.

I wonder if there would be any volunteers.

They always seem to crawl out head first, so I'm assuming the gravity in the center has slowed them down.

Here the anitpodal map to show you where you have to be, to fall into China

www.antipodemap.com...

Screw the science lets try it lol , perhaps on a lonesome planet we can test out our theory on


I say venus! I'm willing to be the answer would surprise us.

I remember doing this exercise in year 10 physics.

Issue 1 - Unless you enter at either of the poles, you will hit the side of the tunnel/hole as you fall, due to the Earth's rotation.

Issue 2 - Gravitational influence decreases the closer you get to the centre of the Earth - Note - at the very centre of the Earth, you would only feel the gravitational influences of the Sun and Moon, Earth's gravity is cancelled out. If you didn't have to worry about hitting the sides of the tunnel/hole you would still fail to fall through to the other side. In a perfect frictionless environment(vacuum), at most, we could only expect the distance from the centre of the earth gained to be the same as the distance from the centre of the Earth when the experiment is started. In Reality, there will always be friction and therefore, a terminal velocity, hence you would always fall short(pun intended) of the goal.

Hmmm. Ok. lets say there is a perfect hole.... I dont want to get into the falling bit (im thinking pendulum). Lets say you stop in the exact center of the earth.

Which way is the gravity... working?? Like, is it pressing into you from all sides at once? Or, rather, are all sides pulling out on you all at once?

Originally posted by Qumulys


Lets say you stop in the exact center of the earth.

Which way is the gravity... working?? Like, is it pressing into you from all sides at once? Or, rather, are all sides pulling out on you all at once?

Gravity is pulling in every direction at once, equalising itself. There will be gravitational influences from celestial bodies though - most notably, the Sun & Moon.

Ironically, the atmospheric pressure at the centre of the Earth would be much greater than on the surface. Oxygen would be in a concentration greater than two atmospheres and hence the air would be toxic to humans.

reply to post by OccamAssassin


Well, it all makes sense now you explained it!

I wish you didn't post just before I posted, cause now I look like a right duffer!

Cheers!