Thanks methos. When I was working in Australia, they had a world map on the wall just like the one in your reply. I put a dot on the map that agrees with your map and said "shortest way to Detroit, start digging here." So when did China move to the northern hemisphere?
If you could drill such a hole, how would a ball behave when drooped into it? Would it make it to the center of the earth, or stop short somewhere before reaching the center? I'm guessing that the mutual pull of gravity from all sides would stop it short of the center of the earth.
Originally posted by edgeview: If you could drill such a hole, how would a ball behave when drooped into it? Would it make it to the center of the earth, or stop short somewhere before reaching the center? I'm guessing that the mutual pull of gravity from all sides would stop it short of the center of the earth.
This is a classic physics problem. The answer is that the ball would oscillate back and forth through the earth, reaching maximum speed as it passed the earth's center, then slowing down until it just emerged out the other end, then fall back in repeating the cycle. It would oscillate in so-called simple harmonic motion, no different than a ball hanging from a spring.
If we add an element of friction, such as air resistance, to this idealized thought experiment, then the ball's oscillations would dampen until the ball came to rest at the earth's center.
Sorry no links at this time -- I'll try to find some later.
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