Re: What would happen if you could drill a hole through the Earth?

Wow! Weird question! It's also a bit complicated. If the earth wasn't spinning, you'd just fall in and 'skydive' down to the centre, slowed by air resistance. You'd overshoot a bit and then fall back again, and continue to oscillate back and forward for a few minutes, until you came to rest, floating, as you suspected! In reality, of course, the earth is spinning. This makes it very tricky. Because you are also going round the earth's centre (all the way round in 24 hours) you could theoretically go into orbit if the earth kept its mass but shrunk to a black hole. It'd be a weird, long elliptical orbit, like Comet Hale-Bopp (have you seen it? Isn't it wonderful?). However, the earth is not about to shrink so your fate might be gruesome: You'd fall, but your sideways motion would pin you to the walls of the pipe, grinding you up like a sanding disc! Yuck. Don't try it, even if you have a big drill! Cheers, Max