Here is a stupid question that has nothing to do with aviation for you all to wonder about. Say it was possible to dig a hole directly through the center of the earth and out the other side, a perfectly straight and plum hole. Then you were standing on one side and dropped a bowling ball into the hole would it come out the other side? Or just float somewhere in the middle?
I was out for a walk and for some reason, and I was sober, I thought of that... what do you think?
This is a thinker
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There was a marijuana thread here just the other day, I suggest you do a search for it.
Your avatar was fascinating when I first saw it, now I hate it like that bubblegum song that goes round and round in your head? Here, I'll sing it for you so you can share it with me...
Your avatar was fascinating when I first saw it, now I hate it like that bubblegum song that goes round and round in your head? Here, I'll sing it for you so you can share it with me...
"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
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desksgo
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xsbank wrote:There was a marijuana thread here just the other day, I suggest you do a search for it.
Your avatar was fascinating when I first saw it, now I hate it like that bubblegum song that goes round and round in your head? Here, I'll sing it for you so you can share it with me...
Happy Valentines day, are you lonely?
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TopperHarley
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If one assumed that the earth was symmetrical and had consistent density, and IFF the hole to the other side had the air evacuated out of it (ie no aero drag) ...
When you drop your bowling ball, it will fall to the center of the earth, gaining speed as it goes. At the center of the earth, it will be at maximum velocity, and there will be no gravity. It will travel up, slower and slower, until it arrives at the surface at the other side of the earth at the same velocity that you dropped it in, on the other side.
Oh yeah, I forgot, this is also assuming the moon isn't there. Tides, anyone?
In real life, with aerodynamic drag robbing your energy, what's going to happen it that it's not going to get as much speed on the way down, and it won't get all the way up to the surface on the other side. Thereupon, it will fall down again. As it says on the shampoo bottle, rinse, lather, repeat. Boing boing boing it will go, back and forth, lower and lower, until it stops at the center of the earth, all of it's potential energy converted into warming the air up in the hole.
Hey Cmax, you wanna calculate all of the above?
When you drop your bowling ball, it will fall to the center of the earth, gaining speed as it goes. At the center of the earth, it will be at maximum velocity, and there will be no gravity. It will travel up, slower and slower, until it arrives at the surface at the other side of the earth at the same velocity that you dropped it in, on the other side.
Oh yeah, I forgot, this is also assuming the moon isn't there. Tides, anyone?
In real life, with aerodynamic drag robbing your energy, what's going to happen it that it's not going to get as much speed on the way down, and it won't get all the way up to the surface on the other side. Thereupon, it will fall down again. As it says on the shampoo bottle, rinse, lather, repeat. Boing boing boing it will go, back and forth, lower and lower, until it stops at the center of the earth, all of it's potential energy converted into warming the air up in the hole.
Hey Cmax, you wanna calculate all of the above?
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Jerk Store
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this is my theory.
assuming the hole went straight through the centre of the earth, the aformentioned ball would accelerate to it's terminal velocity (no more acceleration due to wind resistance). A skydiver falls between 120 mph and 160 mph depending wether they are falling belly first or are head-down. So I would imagine the ball would be going somewhere around that speed.
At the very instant the ball passed by the centre of the earth, it would start to decelerate, or accelerate in the opposite direction. It would not take very long for it to slow down from, let's say, 200 mph, and go back the other way. It would go back and forth with the oscillations decreasing each time, until it stayed hovering in the centre of the earth.
Let's say there was no air resistance, so the ball would steadily accelerate until reaching the centre of the earth. If you were at 300' asl, and you dropped the ball from shoulder height, 5 feet, the ball would come out the other side of the hole, lets say the elevation on the other side of the globe was the same 300', the ball would come out of the hole, 5 feet, and then go straight back down again. and come back out on our lovely side of the panet and rise up to your shoulder height.
If any one else has any coments to make on my logic, I would love to hear it!
this is my first valentine's day away from my sweetie in 11 years.
I love this job.... Livin the Dream!
assuming the hole went straight through the centre of the earth, the aformentioned ball would accelerate to it's terminal velocity (no more acceleration due to wind resistance). A skydiver falls between 120 mph and 160 mph depending wether they are falling belly first or are head-down. So I would imagine the ball would be going somewhere around that speed.
At the very instant the ball passed by the centre of the earth, it would start to decelerate, or accelerate in the opposite direction. It would not take very long for it to slow down from, let's say, 200 mph, and go back the other way. It would go back and forth with the oscillations decreasing each time, until it stayed hovering in the centre of the earth.
Let's say there was no air resistance, so the ball would steadily accelerate until reaching the centre of the earth. If you were at 300' asl, and you dropped the ball from shoulder height, 5 feet, the ball would come out the other side of the hole, lets say the elevation on the other side of the globe was the same 300', the ball would come out of the hole, 5 feet, and then go straight back down again. and come back out on our lovely side of the panet and rise up to your shoulder height.
If any one else has any coments to make on my logic, I would love to hear it!
this is my first valentine's day away from my sweetie in 11 years.
I love this job.... Livin the Dream!
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Jerk Store
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No biggie - great minds obviously think alikeyou beat me to it
That's what she said last nightyou faster
But seriously ... back when the earth was still cooling, and dinosaurs roamed the earth, and there were NO PC's, no internet, no cellphone, etc ...
Yes, it was the 70's, and I was in high school. The long-suffering guidance counsellor told me that I couldn't just take all the math and physics and shop courses, I had to take some "humanities" courses or something like that.
So, I took Typing I. Remember, computers as we know them didn't exist back then - punch cards were pretty hot stuff. But so were the girls in typing class. I was the only guy. I got to like typing, so I took Typing II to fill out my humanities list, and to spend some more time with the girls.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imaging that learning to type 70 words per minute would come in handy down the road.
Holy sh1t has the world changed since then. Mostly for the better, I might add. Compare one liter superbikes, what we have today, to what we rode back in the 70's (!!). And of course now there's GPS, headsets with boom mikes, PTT, intercoms, ANR, stormscope, XM Nexrad, etc.
Still flying the same 210hp Maule that we got back in 1971:
http://www.pittspecials.com/images/maule.jpg
Except instead of me flying it, my kids do
For the sake of argument assume that the center of the earths mass is in the geometric center of the earth, and through some engineering miracle the tunnel was directly through the center of everything... I just think it would be strange to be standing at the other side of the hole and catch a bowling ball coming up at you....
JW
[quote="Hedley"]If one assumed that the earth was symmetrical and had consistent density, and IFF the hole to the other side had the air evacuated out of it (ie no aero drag) ...
When you drop your bowling ball, it will fall to the center of the earth, gaining speed as it goes. At the center of the earth, it will be at maximum velocity, and there will be no gravity. It will travel up, slower and slower, until it arrives at the surface at the other side of the earth at the same velocity that you dropped it in, on the other side.
Oh yeah, I forgot, this is also assuming the moon isn't there. Tides, anyone?
In real life, with aerodynamic drag robbing your energy, what's going to happen it that it's not going to get as much speed on the way down, and it won't get all the way up to the surface on the other side. Thereupon, it will fall down again. As it says on the shampoo bottle, rinse, lather, repeat. Boing boing boing it will go, back and forth, lower and lower, until it stops at the center of the earth, all of it's potential energy converted into warming the air up in the hole.
Hey Cmax, you wanna calculate all of the above?[/quote]
And you think global warming is a stretch??
When you drop your bowling ball, it will fall to the center of the earth, gaining speed as it goes. At the center of the earth, it will be at maximum velocity, and there will be no gravity. It will travel up, slower and slower, until it arrives at the surface at the other side of the earth at the same velocity that you dropped it in, on the other side.
Oh yeah, I forgot, this is also assuming the moon isn't there. Tides, anyone?
In real life, with aerodynamic drag robbing your energy, what's going to happen it that it's not going to get as much speed on the way down, and it won't get all the way up to the surface on the other side. Thereupon, it will fall down again. As it says on the shampoo bottle, rinse, lather, repeat. Boing boing boing it will go, back and forth, lower and lower, until it stops at the center of the earth, all of it's potential energy converted into warming the air up in the hole.
Hey Cmax, you wanna calculate all of the above?
[/quote]And you think global warming is a stretch??
It also turns out that even if the hole doesn't go through the centre of the earth, the time the ball takes to get from one side to the other is the same - about 42 minutes (Assuming constant density). I think this was mentioned before, but I'll say it again: With no air resistance, the ball will under go simple harmonic motion. With air resistance, the ball will undergo damped simple harmonic motion, and will eventually just float at the midway point in the tube.
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Cat Driver
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Did anyone ever find the answer to the friction producing heat question about how long it would take a dog to fu.k a pail of water to a boil?
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Unless your tube has really good air conditioning, you won't have to worry. The 5000-6000degree C temperatures at the core will vaporize your bowling ball well before it gets out the other side.JustW wrote:For the sake of argument assume that the center of the earths mass is in the geometric center of the earth, and through some engineering miracle the tunnel was directly through the center of everything... I just think it would be strange to be standing at the other side of the hole and catch a bowling ball coming up at you....
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sky's the limit
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shitdisturber
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As cloudcounter would say; it depends whether or not the bowling ball has accepted Jesus Christ as it's personal saviour. If it hasn't it will stop in the middle, hell; if it has it will come out the other side and ascend into the clouds, eventually finding it's way to heaven.C-HRIS wrote:gravity would attract it to the center of the earth (i.e hell). So the ball will end up in hell.
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niss
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As cloudcounter would say; it depends whether or not the bowling ball has accepted Jesus Christ as it's personal saviour. If it hasn't it will stop in the middle, hell; if it has it will come out the other side and ascend into the clouds, eventually finding it's way to heaven.
She’s built like a Steakhouse, but she handles like a Bistro.
Let's kick the tires, and light the fires.... SHIT! FIRE! EMERGENCY CHECKLIST!
Let's kick the tires, and light the fires.... SHIT! FIRE! EMERGENCY CHECKLIST!
