What if you dug a hole all the way through the Earth and jumped in? You’d be like a bungee jumper, but instead of jumping from a bridge, you're jumping from one side of the world to the other!
Imagine the Earth is like a big, round ball, like an orange. If you dig a tunnel straight through it, from one end to the other, and then jump in, you’d start falling down, just like when you drop your toy from the top of the stairs.
What Happens When You Fall?
As you fall, gravity would pull you toward the center of the Earth, kind of like how a magnet pulls metal. Once you pass the middle, gravity starts pulling you in the opposite direction, and you’d start going up again!
If there was no air or friction to slow you down, you'd keep going all the way to the other side, just like a roller coaster that goes up and then comes back down.
What If You Keep Going?
If you jumped in again right when you reached the top, you’d be like a ping-pong ball bouncing between two walls, falling, rising, falling, rising… forever!
Examples
- A child falls into a hole that goes all the way through the Earth and wonders if they'll come out on the other side.
- Someone digs a hole from New York to Sydney and tries to walk through it.
- You imagine falling through a hole and think about what happens when you reach the center of the Earth.
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See also
- What is The Moon pulls on Earth like a giant magnet?
- How the tides REALLY work?
- How do I explain to a six year old why people on the other side of the Earth?
- What If We Dug a Tunnel Through the Center of the Earth?
- What If We Dug a Hole All the Way Through Earth?