It is well known that hypothetical tunnels net within the Earth is usually considered as an illustration in a gravitation course for undergraduate students. In this context, an uniform mass distribution is usually considered and, consequently, a vehicle inside the tunnel oscillates in a simple harmonic motion (SHM). In this work, we investigate this problem and we argue that, instead to illustrate this problem using Earth, it is better to consider the Moon. In order to support this proposition, we present a twofold argumentation: first, we show that there is a quite discrepancy between the results obtained from Earth uniform mass distribution model with those obtained considering realistic Earth models (PREM model), whose mass is nonuniformly distributed; second, when the Moon is considered, we show that there is not a discrepancy between the results computed from uniform mass distribution model with those computed from nonuniform mass distribution. Indeed, we revealed that a vehicle inside the tunnel within Moon oscillates approximately in a SHM.
Keywords
Moon; potential energy; gravitational transport
