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Science

Xipe Totec

(44,542 posts)

1. Slightly to the East

Reply to Lionel Mandrake (Original post)

Fri May 26, 2017, 08:50 PM

May 2017

My reasoning is as follows.

Assuming the tower was tall enough to reach geostationary orbit, the ball would actually remain stationary above on a spot normal to the surface. If the tower was taller than geostationary then the ball would actually not be able to keep up and would drift to the West as the earth moved under it. Therefore the opposite would happen if the tower was shorter than geostationary orbit and would actually rotate in an orbit faster than the surface of the earth and land slightly to the East.

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Can you answer a physics question discussed by Hooke and Newton? [View all] Lionel Mandrake May 2017 OP

Slightly to the East Xipe Totec May 2017 #1

slightly west.The tower is perpendicular to the tangent surface of the earth, as in zenith. juxtaposed May 2017 #2

Conservation of angular momentum VMA131Marine May 2017 #3

Correct. Lionel Mandrake May 2017 #4

And if we move away from the equator the same argument holds. Igel May 2017 #5

It's interesting that you should mention moving away from the equator. Lionel Mandrake May 2017 #6

On second thought, using the Coriolis force is a good idea. Lionel Mandrake May 2017 #7