cost aside can I dig a big hole under my house?

danothy

TheBlueHorse wrote: »

if theoretically you could dig a hole that went from Spain, through the centre of the earth and came out in Australia - and then jumped down it - would you fly out of the earth in Australia feet first into the air or would you just come to a stop right in the middle - like a bungee?

Firstly, the hole doesn't need to pass through the centre to be effective, but the travel through it does need to be frictionless and free of air resistance, or you would hit terminal velocity before you got to the mid point and not have enough speed to make it to the other side, and then oscillate back and forth about the midpoint eventually coming to a rest there. Secondly, the earth is not a perfect sphere, so the entrance and exit of the hole would need to be the same distance from the centre of gravity, or you'd overshoot/come up short.

Unless you had something that would turn you around during transit, you'd come out feet first if you jumped in feet first.

antrobus

danothy wrote: »

Firstly, the hole doesn't need to pass through the centre to be effective, but the travel through it does need to be frictionless and free of air resistance, or you would hit terminal velocity before you got to the mid point and not have enough speed to make it to the other side, and then oscillate back and forth about the midpoint eventually coming to a rest there. Secondly, the earth is not a perfect sphere, so the entrance and exit of the hole would need to be the same distance from the centre of gravity, or you'd overshoot/come up short.

Unless you had something that would turn you around during transit, you'd come out feet first if you jumped in feet first.

They had something like that in Total Recall. (The rubbish remake, not the Schwarzenegger original.) Some kind of elevator thing that went through the centre of the earth that enabled rapid transit between the UK and the colony in Australia. I think that turned around so that you always ended the right way up.

danothy

antrobus wrote: »

They had something like that in Total Recall. (The rubbish remake, not the Schwarzenegger original.) Some kind of elevator thing that went through the centre of the earth that enabled rapid transit between the UK and the colony in Australia. I think that turned around so that you always ended the right way up.

The Fall. I was frustrated with that. The turn is plausible, but not the frictionless part for the bulk of the journey. Also, they only seemed to experience weightlessness when passing through the core, which is nonsense, as you'd experience it during the entire free-fall part of the trip.

Generali

danothy wrote: »

The Fall. I was frustrated with that. The turn is plausible, but not the frictionless part for the bulk of the journey. Also, they only seemed to experience weightlessness when passing through the core, which is nonsense, as you'd experience it during the entire free-fall part of the trip.

I heard an interview with a physicist who had worked as a consultant on a few big American Sci-Fi movies.

He said it was great. He'd get the writers, director and the stars in a room and chat to them for half an hour or perhaps even an hour to give them the basics of something (gravity perhaps or quantum mechanics). They'd sit there and love it and ask loads of really insightful questions (these are not stupid people).

Then they'd go back to making their film and completely ignore everything he said.

Basically they'd pay him a packet to chat to some intelligent laymen and a couple of famous people about his favourite subject.:money:

antrobus

danothy wrote: »

The Fall. I was frustrated with that. The turn is plausible, but not the frictionless part for the bulk of the journey. Also, they only seemed to experience weightlessness when passing through the core, which is nonsense, as you'd experience it during the entire free-fall part of the trip.

I was frustrated with the entire movie.

enator

I am thinking of tunnelling under my house - primarily to get away from my family.

Unfortunately, I will emerge in the Southern Ocean somewhere off New Zealand :eek:

http://www.antipodesmap.com/#antipodes-map

antrobus

enator wrote: »

I am thinking of tunnelling under my house - primarily to get away from my family.

Unfortunately, I will emerge in the Southern Ocean somewhere off New Zealand :eek:

http://www.antipodesmap.com/#antipodes-map

You don't have to go in a straight line, you know. You can always factor in a curve so you end up somewhere safe just outside Christchurch.

Sapphire

If you are thinking of digging under your house as a cheap and easy means of getting to Australia, bear in mind that in Australia water whirls down a plughole in the opposite direction to that in the UK…

ging84

if i ever get wealthy i am having a secret underground bunker
And if i ever get really rich i am having a secret glass house in a massive cave

Mistermeaner

if your glass house is secret does that make it ok to throw stones?