giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (11/11/83)
>>>BLUSH<<<
I have just finished carefully reading the original article in the
December issue of *Analog*, and to my great embarrassment found that
I misunderstood the geometry of the loop.
I had thought that the side view of a Launch Loop was:
--> (motion)
------------------------------ (space)
/ \
/ \
---------------------------------------- (ground)
(motion) <--
The geometry discussed in the article was actually:
<===> (motion)
=============================== (space)
// \\
// \\
(_) (_) (ground)
This clearly eliminates the need for concern over the gyroscopic
properties of the loop. Similiarly, there should be no problem
with coupling to the earth's magnetic field (at least to a first
approximation).
However, I still maintain that the Coriolis force, or a related
pseudo-force, will still distort the space-borne segments of the
loop.
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Sidenote: Bill Jefferys @ utastronomy -- I tried to respond to
you but decvax kicked back my mail. (It didn't recog-
nize utastro, error code 101 ???). Alas, that means
that my responses will get to you via USENET before
I can get ahold of the right person here to clear up
the problem. (Veterans day ....)
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Bruce Giles
decvax!ucf-cs!giles (UUCP)
UCF, Dept of Math, Orlando Fl 32816 (Snail)