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Subject: 
Tunnel through the center of the Earth (was Re: John Leo's opinion of "The West Wing")
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Thu, 3 Oct 2002 18:55:20 GMT
Viewed: 
1052 times
  
David Koudys wrote:
*arms and legs flailing in the air*...

But if we deal with the idea of terminal velocity, that brings the air
resistance into the 'hypothetical' idea... without terminal velocity (air
resistance) I'd swing just as far up the other side as my initial starting
position.

The terminal velocity will primarily be a function of the density of the
air and the surface area of the body. The force being applied will have
some effect. Basically what will happen is that near the center of the
Earth, the friction from the air might exceed the gravitational pull,
and therefore contribute to slowing you down. I'm not sure what happens
to the air density near the center, I have this gut feeling that it
increases to some point, and then falls off. You could do the math to
figure it out.

Frank



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: John Leo's opinion of "The West Wing"
 
(...) Now that I pictured that, I understand it better--the force of gravity is always pointing straight to the center from the object, even if you're a foot to the right from where you were a second ago--my visual image is reprocessed--thanks! (...) (22 years ago, 3-Oct-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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