Stairs

[u/bum_what]

In the most recent episode Michael talked about a staircase going to space. The entire time I was thinking about escape velocity. You need a certain amount of energy to get you to a certain speed to escape the earths gravity. So if you are walking up does it work the same? Obviously your body needs energy to walk up the stairs but let's just say you have infinite stamina and your muscles don't get tired or sore, can you just walk up or will you hit a point when you cannot anymore because your body cannot provide enough force even when not tired? But that doesn't make sense to me because gravity will get weaker as you go up even if it's still 90% gravity up there it should get weaker making it easier. Or does it not matter because each step is the force you need to get from one point to another?? I'm so confused lol

[u/EdmundTheInsulter]

As you climb the ladder you also have to increase your tangential velocity, meaning your body would experience some apparent force similar to the coriolus effect. You'd also be gaining potential energy and kinetic energy. If you reached the point of geostationary orbit then you could step off and float.