If a hole was drilled from the North pole to the South pole, and you dropped a bowling ball in it.....what would the ball do? Saw this in a magazine and I thought it was interesting.
Assuming the hole didn't collapse under the pressure of the earth, the ball would probably melt and/or sublime depending on the melting and boiling point of bowling balls.
ill say it before any other idiot decides they are hilarious and original something to do with Chuck mother****ing Norris
Assuming the question was made with the assumption that the bowling ball would not melt and our earth's core would not go flying into space, I think what they are looking for is that the ball would fall towards the center of the earth and then keep going until it almost reaches the other side. Then gravity would pull it back and it would go past the center again and almost reach from where you dropped it. But just barely. It would keep on doing this until it reached equilibrium at the center. There was theoretical talk about a transportation system based on the same concept. Shortest distance and hardly any energy needed to use it.
Wouldn't it just get stuck in the middle after a while? (Ball goes through to the other side, gravity drops it back down the hole again and it repeats itself back and forth until there is not enough force to go any more.) Sort of like a swing being let go from up high and not touched again. Eventually it will just come to a stop.
But if the ball is in the center of the earth, surrounded by all that mass, what happens when all that gravity around it is pulling from all directions?
hold in the middle is my guess. that or it will pass through the worm hole that extends far beneath the bermuda triangle.
I think the pressure would compact the ball. A stationary and hollow core earth would probably collapse on itself eventually.
