Australia, Digging A Hole!

[saintpeter48]

When I was a child back in the 1950s I'd often play for hours in the garden, I remember a few times digging a hole and thinking that if I dug deeper and deeper i'd end up in Australia......
Here's the question, I still live right on the South Coast of England, if I were to dig a hole straight down, where would I come out the other end, somewhere in an ocean I expect, one for greater minds than mine!

[Zacs-Master]

bookbinder, you might be interested in this:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/would-you-fall-all-the-wa/

[davebro]

Deepest borehole is 12,000 metres whereas the earth's diameter is 12,000 kilometres, so they only got 0.1% of the way through!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole#:~:text=In%20terms%20of%20depth%20below,deepest%20artificial%20point%20on%20Earth.

[bookbinder]

Zacs-Master, many thanks for that interesting article. However, I'm not entirely convinced that a human would fall straight through the planet, and come out on the other side. The article's author says that gravity's effect is zero at the planet's centre, but at its maximum at the surface. That suggests to me that a human could not 'fall' past the planet's centre.

[JimF]

"seeing the earth is 70 percent water"

The surface is, yes.

[Zacs-Master]

BB, I'm no scientist I just thought it would interest you.

[bookbinder]

Thanks again, Zacs-Master. Yes, the article did interest me. I, also, am no scientist, but I thought that the scene in the film was credible. It's something to think about, I suppose.

[lady-janine]

Right in the ocean. Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. I need a Kon Tiki at least.

[Zacs-Master]

Indeed. The speed of the person and the 6000deg molten core needs taking into account, too. All good clean theoretical fun.

[Mamyalynne]

Certainly LadyJ

[ferlew]

Campbell Island for me....
"Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku is an uninhabited subantarctic island of New Zealand, and the main island of the Campbell Island group."

[Hopkirk]

When I was a kid I had the same thoughts. I was worried that if I hit the sea, I might flood our back garden.