Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

Pat Flannery flanne

Not even the many fish. The beanstalk that is close to Earth basicly fall
straight down and lands near the anchor point.


Don't forget the jet stream winds- they will pull it sideways as it
falls... I wonder how the designers are going to deal with the wind
problem? The whole line could pick up a harmonic vibration as the wind
flows past it.

The stalk that is higher will
hit so fast that it will burn up before it can reach the ground. Remember
that most likely material to build a beanstalk from will be carbon.

The math for what would happen to the falling line would be interesting
to see- it would probably snap back quite violently when it broke, due
to the tension it was under, and in vacuum the line's contraction
wouldn't be slowed by air drag, so that the broken end might head
earthwards at a considerable speed, due both to that initial velocity it
gained as it snapped, and the acceleration of it's fall into the gravity
well... an intriguing aspect of this is that as it fell it would be
pulled by the weight of its lower sections in a pretty much straight
line until the atmosphere slows it down, and then it might start
collecting in a huge tangle in the upper atmosphere before finally
falling to Earth. If it got up to enough velocity to burn up on reentry,
that could be one amazing light show as it whipped about and burned for
several hours as more and more line arrived.

Pat