Increasing Mass Base Feed Rigid High Tower Model

Since the tower is able to pump up a continuous stream of bodies of equal mass, one question that comes to mind is whether it could raise increasing masses. In this applet, each new body fed in at the base of the tower is 1% heavier than the next one up.

The tower succeeds in raising ever-increasing masses for a while. Since the elastic force constant of the cables between bodies is not changed, the cables are increasingly stretched, and bodies are released more slowly from the top. Eventually, one of the cables snaps.

But this demonstration show that it is, in principle, possible for a light tower to pull up a heavier tower. This has important consequences for tower construction. If a light rigid tower can be constructed, it can be used to haul up a heavier tower, and so on. The construction of a light tower would entail conventional (rocket) launches to deploy a light tower, but once this tower (which might be a filamentary thread) was in place, all further construction would employ the tower's capability to raise more than its own mass.

Each simulation is started/stopped by clicking on the Start/Stop button. With Motion trails unticked, bodies and cables are shown at their present location. In Show trails ticked, bodies and cable motion leaves a trail. The Hold option fixes the radial distance of the lowest body in the tower. The Feed option allows bodies to be fed into the base of a rising tower. The Release option breaks the cable connecting the lowest tower body to the planet. The Shatter option breaks all cables in a tower.

Applets can be restarted by returning to this page, and then reselecting them. Where the models have randomized initialization (as in the Gravitational model and the Elastic model), a new simulation starts each time the applet begins.