OT: About Space Elevators

[Mylon]

The idea behind the design is that the weight is held slightly past geosynchronus orbit so that the weight has a tendancy to fly away from the planet. The cable stops this and holds it in tension. An object climbing the cable effectively pulls the cable down, but since the cable has more inertia than the object, the elevator moves much, much more than the cable does. The tendancy of the weight holding the cable to fly away means that the weight has a constant influx of inertia to resist the tug of elevators. This inertia is probably at the cost of Earth's rotational speed, since it has to come from somewhere...