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Assume that the earth is a solid sphere of uniform density and a tunnel is dug along its diameter throughout the earth. It is found that when a particle is released in this tunnel, it executes a simple harmonic motion. The mass of the particle is . The time period of the motion of the particle will be (approximately)
(take , radius of earth )

The gravitational force acting on a particle of mass at a distance from the centre of Earth is
....(1)
where is the mass of portion of Earth enclosed by a sphere of radius concentric with Earth. Here sign indicates radially inward direction of force.
Taking the density of Earth to be uniform
....(2)
Substituting from equation 2 into equation 1:
Which is similar to the equation of motion with
For such motion, the time period is given by:
Substituting k from above,
Putting the values, we get
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