Title? What title?

In Milton's Paradise Lost, there's a passage about someone taking nine days to fall from Heaven to Hell. (I thought it was forty for some reason, but maybe I'm thinking of Noah's Ark.) Assuming they feel the same gravity in Heaven and Hell (and in between) as we feel near the surface of the earth, how far are they apart? College physics was a long time ago, but here's an attempt anyhow (with the help of my physics textbook).

Assume: ignoring wind resistance

y = (1/2)*(g)*(t^2)
t = (nine days) * (86400 sec/day) = 777600 sec

y = 1/2 * (9.8 m/s^2) * (777600 sec)^2
y = 2.96 * 10^12 or ~3 * 10^12 m

That's 3 trillion meters. Light travels 3*10^8 meters in one second, so it takes light 10000 seconds (about 2 hours and 47 minutes) just to make that journey. They say the Sun is something like 8 light seconds from Earth (or something like that).

One of two things should be changed:
1) account for wind resistance or
2) accept that Heaven and Hell cannot be on Earth and might not be in our solar system.

Considering no planet can be so big, wind resistance would not be accepted anyhow. But what about the final velocity?

v = g * t = (9.8 m/s^2) * 777600 sec = 7620480 m/s

That's about 2.54% of the speed of light, so we're safe as far as relativity is concerned.

What if we include wind resistance? Suppose an object (such as a soul) reaches a terminal velocity after maybe a day of falling.

y_1day = 1/2 * (9.8 m/s^2) * (86400 sec)^2
= 1/2 * (9.8 m/s^2) * (777600 sec)^2
= 3.66 * 10^10 m

v = (9.8 m/s^2) * 86400 sec = 846720 m/s

y_8days = v * t_8days = (846720 m/s) * (86400 sec/day) * (8 days)
= 5.85 * 10^11 m

y_total =~ 6.22 * 10^11 m

That's still about 20% of that ridiculously large distance. So now it takes light maybe a half hour to get from Heaven to Hell. The terminal velocity is probably occurring sooner than a day.

Suppose terminal velocity is reached after just a second (because of wings?). That's just 9.8 m/s.

y_total = (9.8 m/s) * (86400 sec/day) * (9 days) = 7.62 * 10^6 m, roughly 8000 km.

That's about 4700 miles. That's very nearly acceptable, considering the Earth has a radius of about 4000 miles. Then Heaven would be 700 miles above the surface of the Earth. But the Earth's atmosphere is about 300 miles thick, so they can't be breathing air from Earth.

An interesting question is what terminal velocity allows an object to fall from a cloud to within maybe 400 miles (10% of Earth's radius) of the Earth's center.