Thread: Bottomless pit
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Old 12-26-2007, 12:40 AM   #6
Pie
Gone and done
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 4,808
From the self-same thread on sci.physics, a more practical take:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Kwiat
In a very related question, suppose we drop a (teflon-coated) cat down this same tunnel. At what point will thecat turn around (since cats supposedly know to land on their feet)?
Before the cat was teflon-coated, the best answer was given by Prof. Ray Weiss at MIT, who pointed out that the center of such a tunnel, even if goes right through the center of the earth, is not a stable trajectory, and that given the slightest perturbation, the cat would "fall" to one side of the tunnel, and smear itself in a spiral down the sides of the tube.
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per·son \ˈpər-sən\ (noun) - an ephemeral collection of small, irrational decisions
The fun thing about evolution (and science in general) is that it happens whether you believe in it or not.
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