this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
18 points (100.0% liked)

Science

13035 readers
11 users here now

Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
Gaywallet@beehaw.org
remington@beehaw.org
18
Is it possible to dig all the way through the Earth to the other side? (theconversation.com)
submitted 1 day ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org
4 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

When digging a pit, one way to prevent the walls from collapsing inward under pressure is to make them less steep, so they slant outward like the sides of a cone. A good rule of thumb is to make the hole three times wider than its depth.

[...]

Suppose you were to try digging through the Earth, and that the planet was all solid. (We know that it’s not, but this is the simplest scenario.) The depth of a hole all the way through the planet would be equivalent to Earth’s diameter, which is just a name for a line that passes straight through the center of a circle. So your hole would need to be about three times as wide as the diameter of the Earth in order for it to be stable.

Clearly, this is an impossible task that would completely alter the planet’s shape.

[...]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

If there was a hole that went from one side of the earth, through the middle, to the other side and was safe for humans to be in: How much would they be charging to jump in? And how long would it take to fall all the way through?

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 2 points 13 hours ago

Classic intro to orbital mechanics question. You could actually pull this off on some of the smaller bodies in the solar system (asteroids, etc.) provided you put the hole through the body from the north to south pole to avoid Coriolis effects. Time would be equal to the circular orbit time at the same altitude. Cost would be astronomical.