a new way to travel places quickly?

Question

Would this work?
You have a craft that can go straight up and down.
It breaks the gravitational pull of the earth and hangs in space, full of travellers, whilst the earth naturally spins around.
Wait until the country you want to go to is under you and re-enter the earths atmostphere.

just an idea...

Answer 1

How do u 'break the pull of the earth and hang in space'? Just consider this. From the point of view of someone on say.......Mars, the earth is spinning very fast. But would that mean is u were to just jump, by the time you come back to the ground you would have travelled far on the surface of the earth? Why does not that happen? And how is Rocket launched into space any different?
The reason it does not work is because it violates a fundamental law of nature which we know as Newton's First Law, since he formulated it. In any inertial frame of reference an object remains in a state of rest or in a state of uniform motion along a straight line unless an external force is applied.

What happens when a satellite is launched is not that the Rocket suddenly breaks earth's gravity, infact it never does. But what happens is that the Rocket gives a push to the satellite in a certain direction, usually in the same direction as earth is rotating as that consumes least energy. And so the Satellite keeps moving along that direction and at the same time the satellite is falling due to earth's gravity. So a revolving Satellite is continiously falling object which is prevented from hitting the ground for long long time because the initial push given to it by the Rocket would mean that before is would hit the ground it would have travelled furthur than the curvature of the earth and there is no air resistance (or very little) to slow it down. If the Rocket does not give the satellite that initial push in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which it 'falls', then it will hit the ground.

In order for your scheme to work, a rocket would have to carry its payload to a certain altitude and then a force has to be applied to the payload in the opposite direction to that of earth's rotation to make it 'stand still'(remember, here is no such thing as absolute rest). And then again, u need energy to land it on the surface for which u again need to apply force in the same direction as that of the rotation of earth ! Thats an expensive thing to do. Why bother? Its not useful in anyway, is it?

Answer 2

It won't hang in space. At a minimum, it will have a horizontal component in its velocity equal to however fast the Earth was spinning. Plus, the gravitational pull of the Earth goes on to infinity. It just gets weaker the further away you go.

You're essentially tossing the craft into orbit, even if the orbit is highly elliptical. All orbits have to have the center of the Earth at one of the focii of the orbital ellipse. So you won't get from New York to Beijing in half an orbit, you'll get from New York to somewhere in the southern hemisphere.

Fighting the Earth's gravitation to gain altitude is the most expensive part of the trip, fuel wise. If you're going to the trouble to gain the altitude, why not add enough sideways velocity (tangential velocity) to extend the number of places the craft can visit. If you do this, you'll be duplicating an idea that's already been tested. Toss the craft over the North Pole (or somewhere in that vicinity) and time the toss so that the craft lands somewhere in Europe or Asia (whatever your desired destination is) as the world spins underneath. That's how ICBMs would reach their destination if they were ever launched. The only new principle would be increasing the size and power of the boosters to carry the heavier weight of human passengers.

Answer 3

Lets say earth is rotating on its axis and your craft is u in the space. The concept works well if I am travelling to a destination that is to the east because the earth is rotating counter clockwise on its axis.
I.e. If I have to go from east coast to the west coast of the US, this would work fine. But if I have to go back to the east coast from the west coast, I would have to wait a Loooooong time before earth rotates and brings east coast under me!!

Answer 4

Check this site out for your idea.
2006 Space Elevator Challenge Details Released -
http://www.spaceelevator.com/archives/2005/11/2006_space_elev.html

Answer 5

It wouldn't be accurate, it'll waste more fuel than 10 planes AND still take a few hours, and most importantly, we CAN"T break gravity's pull yet so all those people on it would have to spend time getting training under high speeds that'll be neccasary to take the craft out of the earth.

So, NO, it would not work.

Answer 6

it truly is like stepping stones. once you're a touch one you commence off via crawling, then strolling and finally operating. Likewise, we are nevertheless very a lot backwards with our area technologies, so it is going to take time to make stronger a technologies that matches needs that you element out. So till then, we can ought to shop doing those checks and sending people out into area. also, in case you despatched people onto a stay planet, what in the experience that they were attacked via the indigenous species? So, yeah, we want to commence small and then strengthen.

Answer 7

sounds like it would be allot of work/time/money to develop and then no one would use it because it doesn't sound practical and it also sounds like it would be a long trip up and down. There is also ZERO room for error. You would have to come up with some crazy safety features to make it marketable. I just can't see it happening.

Answer 8

Mag-Lev is the most advanced form of transportation that we have so far in my opinion.By using opposing magnetic forces,any amount of weight can be lifted and moved with minimal effort as long as the opposing magnetic forces are strong enough...tom science

Answer 9

Have fun with the calculator. As you see the effective speed depends on where you are.
At the pole your speed is 0

Answer 10

It certainly sounds possible and clearly a great way to save on fuel