If we could build a tower that extended all the way to the moon, what affects would it have on the earth?

Question

How would it affect our weather? Our natural resources? The mantle of the earth? Earths orbit and rotation? What if lightning hit it? How often would that happen? What if it got hit by a meteor? What if it toppled over? How much would it cost to build? What kind of steel and other materials would we have to use to support all that weight? How big would the foundation have to be? How long would it take to build?
(Forget about the facts that we could not survive being in space because of UV rays, X-rays, no Oxygen, no gravity there, forget all that stuff and lets just say WHAT IF here.) I just want to see what kind of ideas people can come up with.

Answer 1

It wouldn't affect our weather, only the resources it takes to build it would be lost. It will fall FAST so the resources would fall back to earth, killing many. Would not effect the orbit. If lightning hit it, it depends on what it's made of. You know what would happen if a meteor hit it. It would cost trillions of dollars to build. Nothing could support all that weight. It would break through the ground. It would probably take 100 years.


If we did build it, the earth spins too fast and it would break fast. Also if it's connected to the moon it would break because the earth and moon spin different.

Answer 2

Any free standing structure can, according to health and safety legislation, only rise 3½ times it's minimum base dimension. As the Earth would not have sufficient bulk to accommodate foundations, we will have to assume that your tower is free standing. The circumference of the Earth is 29000 miles, therefore the diameter of the Earth is 9227 miles, and therefore the maximum height for your structure could only reach 32295 miles. I don't know the distance to the moon, so I'm not sure if this helps. Anyway, in terms of your question, building a tower of this size would use up all of the worlds resources of everything and so there would then be nothing on which to base it and so it could never reach the moon. Besides this, no-one has made a crane big enough yet from which to lift up the building materials to build the tower. Perhaps we could put a hoist on the moon

Answer 3

If we "Forget about the facts", as you demand, then I would say that it could be erected instantaneously with the power of pure thought. It would weight nothing, have infinite strength, but airplanes would fly right through it. It would be shaped like a unicorn's horn, and it would be both pink and invisible. It would not interfere with anything on earth.