[extropy-chat] Re: Space Elevators

[Damien Broderick]

At 01:13 PM 8/3/2005 -0700, Mike wrote:


>Yes, tidal lock will give the cable a 1 revolution per day spin, so

What tidal lock?

>that its earth end will always travel at the velocity of the earth's
>surface (a few hundred mph in absolute terms)

A thousand. So consider: I'm sitting in my geo-station, spooling out bucky 
thread. Mysteriously, it's going straight away from me toward the surface. 
After a while, the far end is hovering one inch above the ground. Even more 
mysteriously, it's travelling at only a thousand miles an hour, while I'm 
hurtling overhead at five miles a second. What's causing the lag? The sheer 
weight of the cable? But when I started spooling it out, the mass was 
negligible. Does it curl up for a while (precess?), and then start to 
straighten out?

Damien Broderick
[ not a physicist ]