science What if the Earth was hollow?

[heavens-champion 1,893]

What if the Earth was hollow? Do you suppose there would be an entire civilization inside?

Edited June 5, 2016 by heavens-champion

[Gestum 2,493]

If the earth was hollow then I can guarantee you that there would be no life on it or in it.

[cmarston1 5,952]

Well at least this is better than speculating whether or not the earth is flat or not which is pretty stupid.

But I don't really think the earth being hollow would actually allow for things to live on the planet.

[Megas 27,070]

If the world was hollow I'm pretty sure none of us would exist

[Invincible 2,090]

I'm no expert, but i don't think the surface of the earth would look the same if the earth was hollow inside...

[Silver Letter 1,830]

Hmm. Without a core, what would drive the movements of the continents? In order for life to exist in an inner earth, some theories postulate that there's an inner sun. Yes, as in another star. Diving into those theories is just scratching the surface of how far people want to imagine some kind of alternative fantasy universe.

[Anneal 2,194]

Well, looking at it from a scientific standpoint...the surface would immediately collapse on itself. It's a basic Newtonian concept of gravitational attraction (well, to be more exact Einstein's gravitational concepts are more correct but Newton still applies here); naturally the surface will pull itself toward the center of mass.

 

And even assuming mass stays constant, there's no longer a geomagnetic field because there is no inner core. So basically, if the Earth doesn't get destroyed from the inside, it would bask in lots of radiation and we'll all be dead anyways.

[Concerned Bystander 2,901]

Interesting, so if you drilled all the way through the crust into the hollow interior, then jumped into the hole, what would happen?  Obviously you'd fall towards the centre, but when you get there would you just float there forevermore?

[viper213 224]

Well if there was no center/core we would all have died millennia ago along with every one else and everything else. And if we didnt by some miracle the planet would collapse upon itself if we didnt freeze/burn first not quite sure if there would be gravity either dont quote me in that

Edited June 5, 2016 by viper213

[Anneal 2,194]

Interesting, so if you drilled all the way through the crust into the hollow interior, then jumped into the hole, what would happen?  Obviously you'd fall towards the centre, but when you get there would you just float there forevermore?

 

Yeah, because when you get into the center (assuming you're drilling from the poles), you'll be equally attracted by the Earth's mass all around and will feel weightless. But because you're jumping down with so much force, you'll end up oscillating around the interior of the Earth (assuming it maintains the same mass as it did when it was not hollow). And then assuming that your energy is 100% conserved during the whole process you will exactly come out of the other side.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

If the earth was hollow...we'd have a lot more storage space. 

[gamecubeguy214 2,511]

The gravity likely wouldn't be strong enough to hold the amount of air and other things we need. If it was normal ONCE and then TURNED hollow, scientists would need to learn how to artificially generate air FAST, or else we would be dead, unless we already do know how.

Edited June 6, 2016 by gamecubeguy214

[LHfunk 422]

Isn't this similar to the plot of Journey to the Centre of the Earth? From what I can remember of the movie (haven't read the book yet) they journey to the center of the earth and find that's it's hollow. I'm pretty sure they also found evidence of advanced life that had once lived there. Either that or they discussed it at some point.

[cider float 2,536]

If the earth was hollow it wouldn't have been able to have created or sustained life. The core is one of the most important parts of the earth to create life and gravity. 

 

But if we were to say the earth was filled as it is but has a pathway down to a civilization that would be cool.

Edited July 15, 2016 by cider float

[Ruthborn 55]

.....isn't the layer just short of the core liquid rock? I get what you're actually saying (an interworld like Skartaris in DC comics) but doesn't this technically mean it's hollow? It's just occupied by liquid.

[Inky Well 2,948]

I think it would be full of water 9_9

[El Duderino 878]

On top of all the stuff you guys have said about the earth just collapsing on itself, without the layers under the crust, there would be no magnetic field and the earth would be constantly bombarded with bad stiff like solar radiation, making it extremely difficult for any life to survive. There also wouldn't be enough mass to produce a gravitational pull to have an atmosphere like ours.

[EpicEnergy 22,105]

I wonder if people could live inside the earth if it was hollow.

[Megas 27,070]

If the Earth was hollow we'd all be dead lol

[Treeglow Flicker 13,038]

If the Earth was hollow, it would be able to float in the bath like a hollow plastic duck.

[ChikaChan 7,320]

Reminds me of Gears of War for some reason

[Oblivion 20,265]

Lizard people? I mean it's possible! 

[Fluttershyfan94 5,738]

The earth to have become like that would need some rather unheard of conditions. Usually when such cavities do exist they are due to lava and ice meeting as the lava cool it creates what we call caves or air pockets in our earth. While a hollow earth would somehow have required our planet to have been an ice giant that somehow develops a large magma pocket that then explodes and goes over this ice cooling it off creating this cover. 

Well the thing is the earth is a rotating mass this rotation creates energy the mass and this rotation creates gravity that pulls towards the mass. Therefore the earth's core would almost certainly have become what it is today a large pool of magma as the heat generated by the mass being essentially pulled towards itself the pressure is immense. So you see for there to be a hollow earth there simply has to have been a giant land of ice such as Antarctica that got suddenly covered in magma.

While this could be possible, you have to consider that even with all these things for there to be live with all that pressure and heat there surely would be at that depth where you would find it would almost make it impossible for anything else but microorganisms to survive in. So no you won't find dinosaurs there you might find bacteria and no unless the oxygen concentration is high enough you wont be seeing giant arachnids or giant bugs you'll at most find some fishes that perhaps have developed in isolated pools of water. That due to high pressure have managed to become somewhat stable perhaps at a higher temperature the usual in other words the life you will find there will be different from ours. It is entirely possible that there would be air pockets in our earth the size of continents yet it'll have unforgiving living conditions that only Chuck Noris could thrive in.

[HeavenSunset 1,867]

If the earth was hollow, we would fall into an ice age since the molten core is what heats up the earth (except for the sun)

[They call me Loyalty 1,941]

Parts of it are hollow, resulting in huge underground caverns and other natural formations so tall as to create a false sky, while there are other perfect geometrical structures fashioned in the likeness of complex chambers meant to channel tectonic energy. As well as temples that resonate with certain sound vibrations.
However, it is not recommended to poke around where one does not belong. One may end up upsetting the underground dwellers, some of which didn't agree with the hybridization, and are said to still have a taste for human flesh. And can you really blame them? Some human beings look delicious, sometimes I have this drive to have sex with them before having them for dinner. But then another part of my brain stops me.
Life was easier when we used to be bipedal lizards. Our life cycle constisted with killing, eating and breeding. Now there are so many moral dilemmas, philosophies and ideologies mixed up within our hybridized human form. And the worst part of all, emotions.