Hollow Earth (world) Theory

[mattd]

One of the more weirdest theories in science, the hollow earth theory has to be my favorite.

 

History:

 

Perhaps some of the most bizarre scientific theories ever considered were those concerning the possibility that the Earth was hollow. One of the earliest of these was proposed in 1692 by Edmund Halley.

 

Edmund Halley was a brilliant English astronomer whose mathematical calculations pinpointed the return of the comet that bears his name. Halley was fascinated by the earth's magnetic field. He noticed the direction of the field varied slightly over time and the only way he could account for this was there existed not one, but several, magnetic fields. Halley came to believe that the Earth was hollow and within it was a second sphere with another field. In fact, to account for all the variations in the field, Halley finally proposed that the Earth was composed of some four spheres, each nestled inside another.

 

 

Halley also suggested that the interior of the Earth was populated with life and lit by a luminous atmosphere. He thought the aurora borealis, or northern lights, was caused by the escape of this gas through a thin crust at the poles.

 

Others picked up Halley's hollow-earth theory often adding their own twists. In the eighteen century Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician, replaced the multiple spheres theory with a single hollow sphere which contained a sun 600 miles wide that provided heat and light for an advanced civilization that lived there. Later Scottish mathematician Sir John Leslie proposed there were two inside suns (which he named Pluto and Proserpine).

 

One of the most ardent supporters of hollow-earth was the American John Symmes. Symmes was an ex-army officer and a business man. Symmes believed that the Earth was hollow and at the north and south poles there were entrances, 4,000 and 6,000 miles wide, respectively, that led to the interior. Symmes dedicated much of his life to advancing his theory and raising money to support an expedition to the North Pole for the purpose of exploring the inner earth. He was never successful, but after his death one of his followers, a newspaper editor named Jeremiah Reynolds, helped influence the U.S. government to send an expedition to Antarctica in 1838. While the explorers found no hole there, they did bring back convincing evidence that Antarctica was not just a polar ice cap, but the Earth's seventh continent.

 

 

In 1846 the discovery of an extinct woolly mammoth frozen in ice in Siberia was used by Marshall Gardner as evidence of a hollow earth. Gardner subscribed to the single-sun-inside-the-earth theory and suggested that the mammoth was so well-preserved because it had died recently. Gardner thought that mammoths and other extinct creatures wandered freely in the interior of the earth. This one had wandered outside by using the hole at the North Pole, then was frozen and carried to Siberia on an ice flow.

 

That same decade a new theory about the hollow-earth appeared. It was the brainchild of Cyrus Read Teed. Teed proposed that the Earth was a hollow sphere and that people lived on the inside of it. In the center of the sphere was the sun, which was half dark and half light. As the sun turned it gave the appearance of a sunset and sunrise. The dense atmosphere in the center of the sphere prevented observers from looking up into the sky and seeing the other side of the world. Interestingly enough, Teed's theory was hard for 19th century mathematicians to disprove based on geometry alone, since the exterior of a sphere can be mapped onto the interior with little trouble.

 

 

Now, I ask all of you, whether you think this theory is possible (and if so, how likely) in the realm of other worlds? I'm entirely sure that the Earth is very thick with stuff in the middle.

[Sayonara]

So many levels of "no" I'm afraid.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Wouldn't it be very hard for a hollow planet to form? Given that most form by big chunks of rocks clumping, growing... etc, how could it be hollow?

[mattd]

I don't think something like this could actually form in nature. But "maybe" manmade, like a dyson sphere.

 

I would imagine gravity would destroy it altogether.

[Ophiolite]

What I find interesting in this is that two very intelligent, well educated, scientists should have developed such bizarre theories. Yet, to them, they were well founded, in that they addressed anomalies in observations and were not prohibited by known science.

 

I can just hear the conversations in the equivalent of this forum one hundred and fifty years from now: "And their top scientists actually believed that the fundamental particles were these tiny strings, and that the Universe started with a Big Bang. And they had dismissed Lamarck totally. Don't even mention variable c. It's remarkable they made any progress at all."

[Ophiolite]

What I find interesting in this is that two very intelligent, well educated, scientists should have developed such bizarre theories. Yet, to them, they were well founded, in that they addressed anomalies in observations and were not prohibited by known science.

 

I can just hear the conversations in the equivalent of this forum one hundred and fifty years from now: "And their top scientists actually believed that the fundamental particles were these tiny strings, and that the Universe started with a Big Bang. And they had dismissed Lamarck totally. Don't even mention variable c. It's remarkable they made any progress at all."

[MolecularMan14]

So many levels of "no" I'm afraid.

ditto...on many levels

The magnetic north can be easily answered with tectonic plates, and continental shift.

What exactly is holding these 4 spheres apart? How in the hell would this form?

Would gravity have any affect on the trolls that Sayo has banished to the center of the Earth? Or do they just walk on the inside of the crust, as if it were as it is to us?

so many questions...so many excuses for not knowing

[MolecularMan14]

So many levels of "no" I'm afraid.

ditto...on many levels

The magnetic north can be easily answered with tectonic plates, and continental shift.

What exactly is holding these 4 spheres apart? How in the hell would this form?

Would gravity have any affect on the trolls that Sayo has banished to the center of the Earth? Or do they just walk on the inside of the crust, as if it were as it is to us?

so many questions...so many excuses for not knowing

[Ophiolite]

The magnetic north can be easily answered with tectonic plates' date=' and continental shift. [/quote']Since you are online, can you expand on your statement please.

The earth's magnetism originates in the core (though I am aware of some recent studies that suggest the mantle may play a role of some kind.)

Plate teconics effects the upper couple of hundred kilometres only and has nothing to do with the earth's magnetism. (Although it was the evidence of sea floor spreading through magnetic reversals that finally convinced the geophysicists what the geologists had known for years.)

So how are you explaining one with the other? Am I missing something?

[Ophiolite]

The magnetic north can be easily answered with tectonic plates' date=' and continental shift. [/quote']Since you are online, can you expand on your statement please.

The earth's magnetism originates in the core (though I am aware of some recent studies that suggest the mantle may play a role of some kind.)

Plate teconics effects the upper couple of hundred kilometres only and has nothing to do with the earth's magnetism. (Although it was the evidence of sea floor spreading through magnetic reversals that finally convinced the geophysicists what the geologists had known for years.)

So how are you explaining one with the other? Am I missing something?

[MolecularMan14]

"Paleomagnetic studies, which examine the Earth's past magnetic field, showed that the magnetic north pole seemingly wandered all over the globe. This meant that either the plates were moving, or else the north pole was. Since the north pole is essentially fixed, except during periods of magnetic reversals, this piece of evidence strongly supports the idea of plate tectonics."

[MolecularMan14]

"Paleomagnetic studies, which examine the Earth's past magnetic field, showed that the magnetic north pole seemingly wandered all over the globe. This meant that either the plates were moving, or else the north pole was. Since the north pole is essentially fixed, except during periods of magnetic reversals, this piece of evidence strongly supports the idea of plate tectonics."

[CPL.Luke]

source please molecular man

 

 

also how could that support plate tectonics unless the plate that the north pole rests on was a giant magnet?

[CPL.Luke]

source please molecular man

 

 

also how could that support plate tectonics unless the plate that the north pole rests on was a giant magnet?

[swansont]

What I find interesting in this is that two very intelligent' date=' well educated, [i']scientists[/i] should have developed such bizarre theories. Yet, to them, they were well founded, in that they addressed anomalies in observations and were not prohibited by known science.

 

There are few theories so outlandish that you can't find some credentialed person that supports them.

[swansont]

What I find interesting in this is that two very intelligent' date=' well educated, [i']scientists[/i] should have developed such bizarre theories. Yet, to them, they were well founded, in that they addressed anomalies in observations and were not prohibited by known science.

 

There are few theories so outlandish that you can't find some credentialed person that supports them.

[swansont]

"...Since the north pole is essentially fixed..."

 

Gotta have a source on that.

[swansont]

"...Since the north pole is essentially fixed..."

 

Gotta have a source on that.

[Ophiolite]

"Paleomagnetic studies, which examine the Earth's past magnetic field, showed that the magnetic north pole seemingly wandered all over the globe. This meant that either the plates were moving, or else the north pole was. Since the north pole is essentially fixed, except during periods of magnetic reversals, this piece of evidence strongly supports the idea of plate tectonics."

Its a little clearer now what you are tring to say. Cetainly the north pole can be considered fixed for practical purposes. (Actual movement of the pole is outside the scope of this discussion.) The magnetic North Pole is only indirectly linked to the rotational North Pole. It is perfectly possible for the magnetic north pole to wander and indeed it does so with long term, somewhat predictable, drift occuring, overlain with smaller more random daily fluctuations. This is quite independent of plate tectonics. On top of that is the point I think you are making that because the plates have moved they show differing positions for ancient poles.

[Ophiolite]

"Paleomagnetic studies, which examine the Earth's past magnetic field, showed that the magnetic north pole seemingly wandered all over the globe. This meant that either the plates were moving, or else the north pole was. Since the north pole is essentially fixed, except during periods of magnetic reversals, this piece of evidence strongly supports the idea of plate tectonics."

Its a little clearer now what you are tring to say. Cetainly the north pole can be considered fixed for practical purposes. (Actual movement of the pole is outside the scope of this discussion.) The magnetic North Pole is only indirectly linked to the rotational North Pole. It is perfectly possible for the magnetic north pole to wander and indeed it does so with long term, somewhat predictable, drift occuring, overlain with smaller more random daily fluctuations. This is quite independent of plate tectonics. On top of that is the point I think you are making that because the plates have moved they show differing positions for ancient poles.