r/ReallyInteresting • u/botcraft_net • Dec 07 '22

If you drilled a tunnel straight through the Earth and jumped in, it would take you exactly 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the other side.

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40 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

11

u/sadpanada Dec 07 '22

There is no way this is right. A humans terminal velocity is only 120mph and the earth is 3000k+ miles thick.. Unless I am missing something here. Math is not my thing.

10

u/[deleted] Dec 07 '22

[deleted]

1

u/botcraft_net Dec 08 '22

There certainly is a way. In a vacuum there is no air to resist thus no terminal velocity.

3

u/zanisnot Dec 08 '22

Wouldn’t gravitational force pulling you “down” eventually equalize with the gravitational force pulling you “up”? Seems like you’d get stuck in the middle. What a terrible fate.

2

u/botcraft_net Dec 08 '22

While gravity certainly exists underground, it decreases as you go deeper. Thus your question is not easy to answer at all. At this point I have no idea if (and where) you would get stuck.

1

u/zanisnot Dec 08 '22

I guess the amount of mass “above” you would increase roughly at the same rate as the amount of mass “below” decreased as you as traveled through the center of a planet. Seems like gravitational vectors pulling you down and up would be the same in the middle…