How can I believe this?

We've all thought about this from time to time.
What if you could drill a big enough tunnel from one side of the earth to the other?
I know it can't physically be done, but in theory, what would happen?
According to mainstream science, you would become suspended in the center of the earth in zero gravity unless you could turn the tunnel into a vacuum. This all sounds ridiculous.
Can someone imagine this to be real?

LINK

If you jumped into the tunnel, you'd fall down towards the center of the Earth, accelerating constantly, thanks to gravity. By the time you reached the halfway point, after falling for 21 minutes, you'd be traveling at 28,000 kilometers per hour. Once you crossed the halfway point, the velocity would carry you back up the other side of the tunnel for another 21 minutes. This time, however, gravity is slowing you down, so by the time you reach the other end, you come to a perfect stop, just as you arrive at your destination.

In other words, the trip didn't require any energy. You exchanged gravitational potential energy for kinetic energy on the way down, and then exchanged it back on the way up again. No energy was created or destroyed. We obey all the laws of thermodynamics here on the Guide to Space. The trick is that you need to make sure the tunnel is a complete vacuum, so that you don't experience any air resistance during your journey. That would cause you to fall at terminal velocity, and you'd end up stuck at the center of the Earth, completely weightless and helpless.

I don't buy it. This theory seems like science fiction.

What do you think would happen (provided that you could be in a pressurized and safe submarine/spaceship pod like thing and can be able to survive the great speeds, etc)??

a reply to: EmmanuelGoldstein

Although you would eventually stop in the middle, you would oscillate backwards and forwards for quite a while. You'd also get hot, hungry, bump on the sides of the hole, tumble and generally have lots of things happen.

It is simple harmonic motion, really.

Also, gravity would not 'hold you in place' because, at the center of the Earth, all the gravitational forces would null each other out. You would percieve no gravity at all, there, from your point of view.

Additionally, it would be possible to 'drill' such a hole by heaping up enough of an extremely dense and heavy element. Once it started moving (by gravitation) it would heat up through compression and friction and would gain more momentum, generating more heat. The mass would burn its way through. It would do similarly on the rebound side. It would also not really follow a straight path as it would be interacting with the spinning Earth.

Total Recall In the 2012 movie Total Recall, a gravity train called "The Fall" goes through the center of the Earth to commute between Western Europe and Australia. In the video game Super Mario Galaxy, there are various planets with holes that Mario can jump through to illustrate the gravity train effect. Gravity train - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org...

Yeah but both of your theories are fantasy. It makes me think the theory gravity itself is flawed.
Yet this is what current science teaches.

a reply to: EmmanuelGoldstein
If you can survive the G force of 28K kilometers per hour the trip's less than an hour.
You cant fly to the other side of the earth in less than twelve hours usually.
groovy

Theoretically, in a perfect vacuum, it is completely possible.

Think of it this way: hold a pendulum 50 feet from it's dead center position and let it go. It will swing away from you, accelerating as it approaches center position, pulled by gravity. Soon as it passes that position, it begins decelerating, being pulled backward by gravity.

It stops just a wee bit shy of 50 feet on the opposite side (due to friction with the air). It then begins its return to you.

However, the temperatures at the earth's core are enough to toast your tokhes (and melt any tunnel construction materials into bubbling white-hot rock snot), so as a practical experiment it's a non-starter.

a reply to: EmmanuelGoldstein

Maybe gravity is a force created by flowing electricity in a torus pattern as the molten metal core of the Earth is turning.

a reply to: dfnj2015

That would explain how the moon, sun and stars float above in the Aither yet rotate around us above, always searching for a way down towards the torus field. Due to the ultra light and buoyant aspects of these heavenly bodies, they are stuck in the lighter atmosphere of the aither/space and can't get any closer to us on Earth, which is the densest object in our solar system.

I'm pretty sure that Elon Musk has already begun drilling the tunnel.

originally posted by: EmmanuelGoldstein
a reply to: dfnj2015

That would explain how the moon, sun and stars float above in the Aither yet rotate around us above, always searching for a way down towards the torus field. Due to the ultra light and buoyant aspects of these heavenly bodies, they are stuck in the lighter atmosphere of the aither/space and can't get any closer to us on Earth, which is the densest object in our solar system.

Actually, the moon is fleeing. About 3.78cm a year.

Also, the sun doesn't rotate around us.. ?

I still like the concept of drilling through the earth... shame about that core.. lol

a reply to: gallop

Actually, the whole thing would look more like this.

Nonsense. The Sun is not moving toward the "north" of the ecliptic. Which is what that lovely, though inaccurate, animation shows.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: gallop

Actually, the whole thing would look more like this.

Nonsense. The Sun is not moving toward the "north" of the ecliptic. Which is what that lovely, though inaccurate, animation shows.

Geez you're quick today, Phage.

I had already edited it, I remembered years ago seeing it but had never looked into it. Just did.

originally posted by: EmmanuelGoldstein
Yeah but both of your theories are fantasy. It makes me think the theory gravity itself is flawed.
Yet this is what current science teaches.

It's not flawed. What it teaches is correct.

Let's say you could create such a "tunnel" through the center of the Earth and make it a vacuum. We may not have the technology to do it now, but there is no physical reason why it couldn't be done with the right super-duper technology. So let's simply assume the tunnel gets made somehow; "how" is not important.

And this also assumes the Earth is of perfect uniform density, which it isn't. But again, this is a thought experiment that is meant to test the physics of the idea. That is, it's meant to demonstrate the science behind the idea.

So let's say you have this perfect tunnel through a perfect earth. If you then drop something -- say a steel ball -- down the center, and you somehow keep it centered, then the steel ball would accelerate as it fell, reaching maximum velocity as it passed the center, then would begin to slow down again as the ball reach the other side, as gravity caused by the increasing amount of Earth mass "behind" the ball pulled back on it.

Since the entire tunnel is a closed vacuum, there would be no air resistance to slow the ball down. The only thing that would finally slow it down would be the gravity pulling back at it once it got to the other side. At this point, the ball would fall again, this time in the opposite direction until it again reached the other side (this time the "other side being the original side) where it would again slow to a stop before falling back once again, starting the process again.

With no friction from air resistance, this back and forth oscillation could last as long as this Earth-and-Tunnel system remains as-is.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: EmmanuelGoldstein

Maybe gravity is a force created by flowing electricity in a torus pattern as the molten metal core of the Earth is turning.

How does that explain gravity everywhere else?

For example, the asteroid Bennu has a small yet measurable gravitational pull on the Osires-REx spacecraft that is now in orbit around it. How does flowing electricity from a turning metal core explain that, unless you think every space rock has a turning metal core?

Or let's say how does your explanation work for the gravity of the sun keeping the planets in orbit? Or how does it explain the gravity of a galaxy that appears to bend light around it in gravitational lensing?