ever wondered what's on the other side of the world at your location!?

[JohnMitchell 14]

I would think that your acceleration would slow as you approached the center because you would have as much Earth mass behind you as in front of you.

Some gravitational calculations, such as orbital speeds and other effects outside of the mass, can be done calculating from the center of mass as if it were a pinpoint. I think falling through the center of the mass requires some solid geometry and calculus skills. Billvon, John Kallend, either of you up late tonight?

Even if all the Earth's gravitational attraction were contained in a pinpoint in the center of the Earth, as you freefell towards it, you would accelerate at an increasing rate until you zoomed past that point, then you would slow at a decreasing rate until you just barely approached the lip of the other hole, the pendulum "pattern", if you will.

[warpedskydiver 0]

In reality if it were a vacuum and there was a hole like that, you would get perpetual motion.

The cool thing is if you could base off a high point you would actually keep clearing the surface by the same amount.

Of course in a vacuum your body position would look like shit but oh well.

[JohnMitchell 14]

It'd be like an endless balloon jump.

Actually the sensation would be like space walking, weightless.

Funny how we call gravity a force but we only feel it when we resist it. It's hard to think of it as just a curvature of space-time.

[kallend 1,619]

4/5 of the Earth's surface is ocean, so that's what you'll most probably find.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kallend 1,619]

Quote

I would think that your acceleration would slow as you approached the center because you would have as much Earth mass behind you as in front of you.

Some gravitational calculations, such as orbital speeds and other effects outside of the mass, can be done calculating from the center of mass as if it were a pinpoint. I think falling through the center of the mass requires some solid geometry and calculus skills. Billvon, John Kallend, either of you up late tonight?

Even if all the Earth's gravitational attraction were contained in a pinpoint in the center of the Earth, as you freefell towards it, you would accelerate at an increasing rate until you zoomed past that point, then you would slow at a decreasing rate until you just barely approached the lip of the other hole, the pendulum "pattern", if you will.

Making a bunch of assumptions about the hole (like, no air resistance in there, the liquid iron at the center doesn't slosh into it, uniform distribution of density, etc.) then the period of oscillation is exactly equal to the orbital period of a satellite at the Earth's surface (also assuming no air resistance, mountains to hit, etc.) IIRC, Newton proved that in Principia. The proof is pretty easy, once you know the "shell theorem".

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[JohnMitchell 14]

Quote

then the period of oscillation is exactly equal to the orbital period of a satellite at the Earth's surface (also assuming no air resistance, mountains to hit, etc.) IIRC, Newton proved that in Principia. The proof is pretty easy, once you know the "shell theorem".

Thanks, John. That sounds right, just under a 90 minute period. I can see the connection now. You know, you ought to teach this stuff.

[kallend 1,619]

Quote

Quote

then the period of oscillation is exactly equal to the orbital period of a satellite at the Earth's surface (also assuming no air resistance, mountains to hit, etc.) IIRC, Newton proved that in Principia. The proof is pretty easy, once you know the "shell theorem".

Thanks, John. That sounds right, just under a 90 minute period. I can see the connection now. You know, you ought to teach this stuff.

Yeah, I've thought about that.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[warpedskydiver 0]

we always seem to focus on the small picture as our world is actually extremely small, that is one of the things that really makes me enjoy physics and astronomy.


It is the idea that such vast forces shape all that we know and all that we have not discovered yet.

I wonder if someday they will discover what is beyond the edge of the expanding universe.

I would love to find out.


Hey if someone ever says "you think you are a star" tell them "why yes I am!" and you would be correct.

It is that fact that has always made me believe there is life elsewhere, maybe not as we know it, but there has to be.

[selbbub78 0]

I'm in water NEAR Antarticia.. Not too far off the border


CReW Skies,
bubbles

"Women fake orgasms - men fake whole relationships" – Sharon Stone
"The world is my dropzone" (wise crewdog quote)
"The light dims, until full darkness pierces into the world."-KDM

[KevinP 0]

My "home town" in North Carolina, my most recent residence AND my current school location: Indian Ocean.

My projected residence in Hawaii: Kkhoutsiri, Ghanzi

Sincerely,
Kevin