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#41 |
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The tube isn't in orbit though - it's attached to the Earth (well, unless we want to take this notion even further into la-la-land and have it somehow freely orbiting the planet, at a fixed distance above the surface). The "centrifugal" force will not negate gravity either; if it did, then the rotation of the atmosphere normally would cause it to lift away. A simple calculation shows this: The reason why the upper atmosphere does not vent due to the rotation of the Earth is that it is not all in geosynchronous orbit. The very outer layers of the atmosphere do not rotate at the same speed as the Earth. |
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#42 |
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I'm not saying the centrifugal forces will negate any power required to push the air up the tube, all I'm saying is, assuming the tube is in a geosynchronous orbit, as stated in the original proposal (it would be almost impossible to support the tube otherwise), that means its centre of mass will be at 35780 Km. Therefore any air exiting the top of the tube will have supassed escape velocity anyway due to the rotational speed of the top of the tube, so all that we need to do is somehow push the air out of the top of the tube. As long as we do that, the air will vent. go and read about orbit and you will see. a rocket doesn't reach the moon by firing it's rocket directly at it. it is actually trickier than that! ok, sorry i guess i should explain: when you throw something, you apply speed to the object just once. the thing is, gravity is not speed but acceleration, so for each second, it is pulling you down at the given speed(eg 9.8m/s on earth). you will need to impart enough thrust during the vent to overcome the duration it will take you to travel out of the effective earth gravitation reach. The reason why the upper atmosphere does not vent due to the rotation of the Earth is that it is not all in geosynchronous orbit. The very outer layers of the atmosphere do not rotate at the same speed as the Earth. i dunno what you mean, but the upper atmosphere does not vent simply cause there is not enough energy to counter the gravity pulling it downward. the reason why it is staying up there, is because as it fall, it hit other atoms and is bounce back up, that is how air pressure work. smaller atom travel further with the same energy since it has less mass to move, which allows them to stay higher. |
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#43 |
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not really, the "rotation speed" you said or orbital speed is the speed required to just maintain at a given height. if you were to throw something outward from there, the object will just have a higher apoapsis. with an orbit that look like a scretched rubber band. because the escape velocity is still alot faster than the geosync's orbital speed. ![]() |
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