[ExI] Earth hoola hoop generator/transport ?

[Alex Blainey]

-----Original Message-----
From: Anders Sandberg : Mon, 23 Dec 2013 17:43



    >Is there a constant wind at the equator due to the Earth's rotation?    No. The train will be at rest relative to the ground when it starts    levitating and there is no force on it. And if it had any velocity,    friction with the surroundings would slow it down (even in an    >evacuated tunnel there are always some losses, including ohmic    electrical losses due to vortex currents).
    >........
    >Uh. How much physics do you know? Earth orbits *because* of gravity.    And yes, something that lacked orbital velocity would just fall in.    Move 30 km/s back from Earth, and you will fall in. But if you do it    on a track around Earth you only cancel the >attraction from the Sun,    not from the Earth. However, if you move fast enough you (8 km/s)    get to surface orbital speed - you will be in orbit on ground level.    
    
    The way im looking at it is that the system gains *relative* movement due to entropy. In effect it is the losses of the system that cause it to rotate. Rather than standing on a stationary point and trying to make something move,
We are talking about standing at a moving point and allowing something to lag behind.
Yes, I believe there is a general westerly trend in wind direction at the equator which demonstrates the idea.

Re: the gravitational physics, Im not refering to earths constant state of fall toward the sun, offset/balanced by its orbital rotation around the gravity well as per conventional physics. Its something in my "Big mental file of stuff that's probably cobblers, but fun to think about" Where the gravitation force of the sun is acting on a rotating body. This force is felt partially at 90deg thus causing the orbit. Similarly the gravitational pull of the earth itself on its own mass causes it to spin about its axis.
Taking that as the thought starting point and applying it to the train. If the train were in a theoretical totally friction free environment. Would entropy cause it to rotate westwards? Or as per the idea that gravity itself causes orbital rotation, would that force cause it to either stay static relative to the ground or even make it rotate eastward?
The rationale behind it rotating eastward and thus faster than Earths rotation being that the earth's axial spin is a result of average of forces. The closer to the earths core you get the less downward gravity its matter experiences. So a ring at the Earths surface would experience the full force of the entire planet. Its net force felt would be higher than the average felt by Earth.
All of that is really a side arguement. The main question being, if we built it, would it spin? (relative to us)

A tertiary consideration would be as the ring-train is independent of the planet, what effect would the orbital path of the Earth and gravity of the sun have? Im assuming that the ring would try to slam into the track at roughly the sun rise point as Earth moves in that direction.
Likewise it would be pulled directly by the sun and also the midnight position of the ring would be pulled toward the track. the result being a misalignment of the ring due to a force moment somewhere near a 45 degree angle.

A
    

 
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