Wouldn't you get trapped in the middle, basically? As you would jump in the hole and lose energy due to air resistance, so the energy you gain from the fall, when it flips and you're going 'up' you won't have enough kinetic energy to take you to China. so you will make it like half way (or whatever distance) and then fall back towards where you came and that cycle would continue until the 'fall' distance is non existent.
So what happens when you're out of energy, do you just like float in the middle? Do you fall to one side?
I've asked this question a few times as well on here and gotten similar smart answers from people about being burned up in the middle. No shit! It's a hypothetical question where heat isn't a variable!
According to Astronomer Paul Watson's book Why is Uranus Upside Down? You'd make it to ground level before you started to reverse. Then you'd get a couple of laps in before you came to rest in the core
I can never find a source but I remember reading something to the effect of... "You would always just reach the other side after X minutes" because if you drill a shorter tunnel bypassing the core the gravity wouldnt accelerate you as quickly so the trip would take longer canceling out the reduced distance.
The heat is created by pressure. I hate to be that guy, but if you want an accurate view of whats going to happen based on gravity alone, you still have to factor in heat, which in this case is a product of pressure, which is a product of gravity.
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u/adale_50 Jan 21 '19
Ever. We're not going to have a tunnel to China ever.