• Question: If you dug to the centre of the earth and then continued, would you be digging up?!? From snoopy

    Asked by snoopy to Carol, Ellie, John, Philip, Rebecca on 2 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Carol White

      Carol White answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Hi snoopy!

      So if we ignore the fact that the mantle would burn your arms off (and your spade!) before you even got to the middle….

      YES! You’d be fighting against gravity once you got to the middle and went through, so that would be digging up – you’re right 🙂

      Where you plan to dig? I wouldn’t recommend the sea floor, even if it does give you a head start, it’s a bit dark down there 😛

    • Photo: John Welford

      John Welford answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      I guess so? Although at the centre I suppose all directions would be “up”?

      It’s a bit like standing exactly at the North Pole, then all directions are South!

    • Photo: Rebecca Lacey

      Rebecca Lacey answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      It depends upon your point of reference. From the point at which you started you would still be digging down but with reference to gravity you would start digging up once you passed the centre.

      I wouldn’t recommend it though – it would take a long while and you would probably die!

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