If the Earth stopped rotating...

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jan</i>
<br />Tom,

Wat do you think the effect will be of a Space Elevator on the rotation of the Earth? I've heard disturbing stories that such a massive elevator could change the rotation speed, thereby influencing the delicate balance of seasons etc.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

The Space Elevator is stationary relative to the surface of the Earth and won't affect the rotation one bit. The Space Elevator has such tiny mass compared to the Earth you don't have to worry.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jan</i>
<br />I've heard disturbing stories that such a massive elevator could change the rotation speed, thereby influencing the delicate balance of seasons etc.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">The mass of the Earth is 6x10^24 kg. As Jeremy says, a space elevator would not make any detectable difference to Earth's rotation because Earth's angular momentum is so large. Humans overrate their significance outside their own biosphere. -|Tom|-

Tom,

That brings up a concern of mine about the proposed space elevator. Wouldn't the "space" end of the space elevator orbit at a different speed than the Earth rotates? For that matter, wouldn't every part of the space elevator orbit at a different speed, tearing the entire thing apart?

--Astro

The center of mass of the elevator must be at 10,000 miles in geosynchronous orbit. The rest of the elevator which is not at that altitude would be the stress which the cables are designed to hold up.

There was also a proposal some decades ago when the elevator was proposed, to put a rotating elevator in orbit where one end would come down from orbit (while the whole thing was still in orbit) ... and ... you'd "hop" on when it got near the ground and get swung up into orbit.

This is the kind of fanciful engeneering that I like to read about even though its realization may be centuries away from being feasible.

There is still another problem with the elevator concept-angular momentum. How can a container be lifted from the surface of Earth where the angular momentum is high to space where the angular momentum is low? You need to retrofit the container with rockets to deal with the force of angular momentum and that is dead weight both ways.

Tom,

Would such a change in the Earth's rotation have any effect on smaller orbiting bodies like artificial satellites?

--Astro