Short Tower model.

This tower is made up of 7 satellites chained together by 10,000 km cables, and is some 76,000 km in radius. This is insufficient for centrifugal forces to overcome gravitational forces. The base is in compression, and the tower collapses to Earth.

In this model, as each body falls, the tower is "reeled in", and remains connected to the planet tether point.

In the next applet, the height of the tower is increased to 150,000 km, so that there are more satellites pulling outwards on the tower.

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.