Talk:Toaru Majutsu no Index Movie: Miracle of Endymion/@comment-65.31.236.115-20130912030034/@comment-11571396-20130916021950

No, that’s not how a space elevator works. It’s a weight on a string that’s being spun around. The “foundations” are actually anchors that hold the one end to the earth. The “string” is held taught by a weight at the far end that is being spun by the rotation of the earth Cut the anchors and the weight flies off. Think of a yo yo doing “round the world”.

Disconnecting the anchor points from the Earth sort of does make some sense for a space elevator. If it’s no longer pulled down at its bottom end, its inertia should take it away from the Earth, because the point of one is that it’s built tall enough, with enough of its mass beyond geostationary orbit, that the force of gravity is actually not enough to keep it following the circle it’s travelling, so the whole thing is under tension and that’s what keeps it upright (if it were on the equator…).