what would happen if?

[boffin990]

If i drilled a hole all the way through the earth and poured water down it would the water flow out the ohter side or gush out like a fountain??

[bookend]

Not another one!

Assuming you're talking of drilling through the centre of the earth, the inner core of the earth has a temperature of 5000 to 6000 degrees C according to Wikipedia..

Do you really think that liquid water would flow or gush out from a hole after passing through an area at this temperature?

[wildwood]

Once your drill goes down 20miles it will melt so you will never get to the other side. Even if you were able to make a drill of pure diamond, it would still melt once you get near the center.

[Azalian]

bookend and wildwood are, of course, correct in their assertion that water would never reach anywhere near the centre of the earth, even if you could drill right through,which is impossible.

However, to answer the question in the spirit it's written,

If the earth was a solid, cool mass and a tunnel from side to side was possible, the water would fall under the influence of gravity, accererating all the way to the centre of the earth, then begin to slow as it passed the centre.

It would continue to decelerate until it almost reached the "hole" at the other end, air friction would have slowed it down and it wouldn't quite see the light of day at the other end. it would then start to fall back down the hole again then it would ossilate back and forth reaching up the tube less and less each time until it stopped finally at the centre of the planet

[mibn2cweus]

Between 1-10 miles below the surface temperatures are sufficient to boil water occasionally producing results such as these:

�Old Faithful� Geyser

�Beehive� Geyser

[dundurn]

To carry on from Azalian's answer: you could simulate the effect by making a large U-shaped tube - transparent plastic pipe would do - and pour water in from one side only. The tube represents the hole you've drilled through the Earth. Initially the water will flow up the other side of the tube and then back again with the oscillations getting less and less until finally the water settles at the bottom of the tube. As you continue to add water the effect will be to make half the water "disappear". As you put in enough water to fill 1 foot of the tube the level will only rise 6" on 'your' side of the tube/hole.

[chakka35]

The oscillation idea is reasonable, but what would its amplitude be? Not as far as the other side of the world, I wouldn� t think.

The size of the gravitational force where we stand is due to the fact that the whole of the planet is �below� us. But as any object falls towards the centre of the earth its acceleration due to gravity would become less and less as more and more of the planet�s mass moves �above� it. By the time it reached the centre, its acceleration would be zero, there being as much mass �above� it as �below� it.

It would be moving, but at what velocity? I don�t know how to work that out.

Its momentum as it passed the centre would, of course, depend on its mass and its velocity, so it might not move very far until the �backward� acceleration stopped it and moved it back towards the centre, and so on�

So it�s impossible to know what would happen without knowing the object�s mass and (beyond me) its velocity as it reaches the centre at zero acceleration.

Someone please help!

[spudo]

i'd wake up!