What would happen in this situation?

Question

Suppose there was a satellite orbiting earth and attached to this satellite is a thin, light string. This string reaches all the way down to just above the earth's surface. Could you swing on it? If you tried would you start pulling the satellite toward the earth? Would earth's gravity acting on the miles of string in the atmosphere pull the satellite in? What would happen?

Answer 1

As that last answer given you have described a space elevator. We currently do not have materials strong enough to endure the tensile strength required to hold such an object in space, but scientists are working on it....

Remember that centripetal force is working here, so it would act just like swinging a rope around. The satellite will want to travel in a straight line but it is attached to the earth so it gets pulled toward the centre. If you pulled hard enough you could pull the satellite down to the earth but you'd need a huge amount of force, probably more than feasible. You could climb the rope up to the satellite more easily than pulling the satellite down to the earth.

To answer the last part of the question, you need to have the satellite up high enough so that the centripetal force is stronger than the force of gravity. Once that is done, the "miles" of string would have a neglible effect on the path of the satellite.

Answer 2

There's a concept called a space elevator that's similar to what you describe. People have been exploring the concept for years as a less expensive way to move material into space. It's essentially what you describe: a tether extends from the surface of the earth to a counterweight which is in a position such that the center of mass of the system (tether weight + counterweight) is in geosynchronous orbit. There's a good article in wikipedia, as well as several others on the web.

Answer 3

You would have to let the satellite out enough that it starts drifting away from Earth, then your weight would balance it again into a stable orbit.

Of course, your string would snap long before that. There is no material strong enough to be stretched from geosynchronous orbit to the ground. Also, be caeful touching that string. The static electricity built up from ground to top might be quite shocking.

Answer 4

im just learning physics right now, so im not sure, but i think that you could pull it down if you were strong enough.