I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Disease Zone. It has scientists studying the causes and processes of illness . Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
great…this question just gave me a headache!
Good question though….
I’ve got the answer! I just found this hilarious video explaining it https://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/oer08.sci.phys.maf.gravitynsn/ (just click on view on the right side).
Pretty much, you will fall down the whole, going faster and faster when you approach the core. Then, when you pass the core, you will slow down again until you reach the surface on the other side! They said in the video it would take you about 42 minutes to fall through to the other side of the earth.
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I love the video that Natasha posted, but it forgot one thing: What if you just appeared at the centre of the Earth’s core, with no momentum? The core is an area of “zero gravity”, meaning that all forces are perfectly balanced, and theoretically, whatever is at the very absolute centre of the Earth should be weightless. Of course, it would also probably only be a single atom, or maybe even electron, not a whole person.
I went and talked to a few physics buddies, and apparently this is actually a much more complex problem, because as well as there being zero gravity, there is still very high pressure! That means that one tiny atom is still having to support the weight of all the layers of the Earth still sitting on top of it. Luckily, this force should be equal from all sides of the atom, so it all balances out! By the end of it, I was very confused, and they were very amused.
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