Re: All ukrm-ers are now US criminals - official

darsy wrote:

On Jan 16, 3:44 pm, Champ <n...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:27:35 +0000, Ben <ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:43:25 +0000, Champ <n...@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Absolutely fascinating (Wikipedia is my new consumer of lost
time), but that article does not explain why the space elevator
needs to be built at the equator.

Anywhere else it won't stay up.

Because... ?

where's Simian when we need someone to do the maths?


*waves*


The thing to bear in mind, is that this is not simply a very tall
building that goes into space.
It is effectively a taught cable, which is kept in tension by the
centripetal force of the counterweight out beyond geostationary orbit
level.
By definition, this force is always perpendicular to the plane of the
rotation of the Earth.
Only at the equator is this force acting in the same direction as you
want the cable to go (i.e. straight up).


It's not just a string with a mass attached, the cable itself has
significant mass, so as long as you build it with the right curve in
it, you can put it mostly where you want, and it'll still be under
tension along it's whole length.

.

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