Fun fact: A real space elevator would need to be 458x as long to reach geostationary orbit.
At the speed of earth’s current fastest elevator, it would take almost a month to reach the top.
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles of a thing. In the vacuum of space, there are very few particles, and they are mostly moving very very fast, which gives them high energy and high temperature.
I forget what happens at 40,000 m that causes the shift from cold atmosphere to “this is space” but that’s how the temperature is increasing – as you climb there are fewer and fewer particles, moving faster and faster.
https://neal.fun/space-elevator/
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Fun fact: A real space elevator would need to be 458x as long to reach geostationary orbit.
At the speed of earth’s current fastest elevator, it would take almost a month to reach the top.
That was really cool, thanks!
Why does the temperature increase at 40,000m?
Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles of a thing. In the vacuum of space, there are very few particles, and they are mostly moving very very fast, which gives them high energy and high temperature.
I forget what happens at 40,000 m that causes the shift from cold atmosphere to “this is space” but that’s how the temperature is increasing – as you climb there are fewer and fewer particles, moving faster and faster.
Good question. I don’t know the answer but it started to get warmer from the stratosphere at 16km