Filed under: Emerging Technologies, AutoblogGreen Exclusive
It's Friday: New York to Japan in 42 minutes by gliding through the hollow Earth
The video above describes the idea of a gravity train, which imagines drilling a hole through the Earth to travel to different locations on the surface of the Earth. The gravity train would mean travel times of about 42 minutes from any two locations on the Earth's surface. Of course, digging a hole to China is really hard. Just ask any third grader. But what if the Earth is hollow?
Below the fold is a video of a guy who actually thinks the Earth is hollow. If he is right and all of all of geological science is wrong, then we won't have to drill a very deep hole. Traveling from one point on the surface of the hollow Earth to the another would only require the creation of a giant glider, that would fall through the Earth. So, as soon at the hollow earth theory is proven (don't hold your breath), we should see proposals for transport systems soon after.
[Source: YouTube, Neatorama]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Karkus 2:41PM (12/14/2007)
Hmmmm... OK then.
How about keeping the focus on autos (since it's AutoBlogGreen). Sure there's lots of interesting transportation ideas out there and bikes are neat too, but where does it end?
Is there any kind of ABG mission statement that describes what kinds of topics should be included here?
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Brian Hague 2:56PM (12/14/2007)
hmm...
Put a bowling ball on a rope, mount it to the ceiling. pull it back until it can touch your nose, make it touch your nose... let go... on the rebound does it hit your nose?
sounds to me like the glider is going to need a little power...
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ug 3:13PM (12/14/2007)
Sometimes the mission seems to amount to "OMH, the future of transportation is in such jeapordy that we better consider every screwball idea there is!!"
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GoodCheer 3:39PM (12/14/2007)
Karkus, you're no fun. I totally want to follow this guy on a mission to the North Pole.
Think about it, a whole interior world full of our long lost brothers and sisters, living in the light of a glowing ball of metal! It just about the most wonderful thing I've ever heard. All we need to get there is a $2 million submarine to dive through the hole in the earth's crust.
You skeptics and nay-sayers are holding our species back from the most important geological discovery of all time!
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Yggdrasilly 3:55PM (12/14/2007)
"On that train of graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail..."
So where's my Spandex jacket?
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Chris M 6:11PM (12/14/2007)
ROFLMAO! The "hollow earth theory" was fabricated by folks who had never actually been there or to the mythical "polar holes", and is propped up by the flimsiest of evidence - wildly entertaining tall tales, Photoshopped pictures, and a decorative carving in a chapel! Any expert geologist can tell you it is nonsense, the quake wave patterns indicate a liquid core, but definitely rule out a "hollow earth" or even a very large excessively deep cavern. What's more, there have been several expeditions to the north and south poles, and no "polar hole" was found. That required the believers to move and shrink their mythical hole. The nature of gravity and the properties of rock do not allow for a "hollow earth", nor does nuclear physics allow for a tiny "center sun". Speaking of which, even a low light "center sun" would cook that mythical "center earth" as there is no way to sufficiently dissapate the accumulating heat. Ah, but facts never interfere with people living in a fantasy world.
The "hollow earth" promoters and believers follow the "Lays Potato Chip theory of High Weirdness", that is, they cannot have just one. These people also believe in flying saucers, ETs, eccentric religious ideas, hidden civilizations, mystical forces, "the Illuminati", ESP, dowsing, etc.
The expedition to reach that mythical "hollow earth" through the "north hole" has been planned for years, but they never quite make it. They were originally scheduled to charter a Russian nuclear powered icebreaker to sail north in 2006, but various and sundry problems always pop up to delay them. Hmm, makes me wonder if the promoters are just collecting "expedition deposits" from the gullible and stuffing their own bank accounts...
Now, the idea of a transit tunnel through the earth, taking advantage of gravity to aid initial acceleration and decelleration at the other end, is a good one. Magnetic levitation can be used and the tunnel evacuated to reduce drag, dramatically reducing energy costs. The main limitations are the high cost of deep tunneling, and that high temperatures and high pressures limit how deep the tunnel could go.
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Domenick 4:25AM (12/15/2007)
The ho;es aren't at the poles because the poles have moved. Everybody know that. ^_^
I believe the hollow earth guy is related to Spiro Agnew. Maybe his grandson....
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paradoxbomb 3:46AM (12/16/2007)
Please don't lend these crackpots credence on your blog. They make the job of actual scientists who solve real problems difficult. Witness the constant recurrence of Intelligence Design promoters: they're all cut from the same cloth.
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the great beyond 3:16PM (12/17/2007)
I think people are missing the point. There are two items here - one that is somewhat serious, and one that is just fun to talk about. Have a sense of humor.
My only concern about the gravity tunnel is how fast does it accelerate? Is it possible at the wrong angle choice that you could kill the passengers?
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