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Old 29th June 2006 | 10:52
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Tim Inder
 
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 211
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From: Norfolk UK
Depends how high and where you built it!

If you built one on the equator, standing at the top you'd be whizzing around at a fair old rate as you'd be following the earth's rotation, so in theory, yes it's possible.

If you built one on one of the poles you'd have to get a veeeeery long way away as earth's gravity would still be pulling you down, albeit with a tiny amount of force, but given long enough you'd eventually get pulled back to earth. (unless you were so far away that another planet/star was pulling harder)

The key is to have a rotational velocity, which in turn will give you the acceleration to overcome gravity.

(apologies for not necessarily using the correct terms, it's been a few years since physics!)
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