Re:Actually, yes, you do (Score 1)

Hey, that's a great description. So based off that information, lets consider the following: - The earth has a radius of 6375 km. - The elevator counterweight will be swinging at about 100,000 km above the surface of the earth (http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-elevator1. htm) Although the angular of the counterweight would be the same as the base station, the linear velocity of the counterweight would be around (100,000 + 6375)/6375) = 16.7 times faster than the base station. The linear velocity of the earth at the equator is: 1674 km/h So the counterweight would need to be accelerated to 27955.8 km/h (an additional 26,282 km/hour from the starting velocity at the base station) The next step would be to calculate how many pounds of rocket fuel it would take to accelerate a 1kg of mass to 27955 km/hr. Otherwise the counterweight will continue to get more and more crooked as mass is elevated up the cable.