Markup View

Author: Stratadrake

Oct 4th 2012 at 11:00:17 PM

@Sharlee: How "correct" the Wikipedia article is I can't judge, but their explanation does strike me as perfectly clear:  Orbit is a careful balance between velocity and distance from planetary center-of-gravity; a lower altitude requires a faster velocity to maintain an orbit and vice versa.  Now the trees' center is at perfect orbit altitude (someone at the center feels zero planetary gravity), but the bottom of the tree is slightly slower than orbit velocity at that lower altitude (as signified by the winds, which themselves travel at orbit velocity and are what gives the trees their eponymous shape) so someone standing at the bottom feels a small portion of planetary gravity (''not'' gravity from the tree's own mass, which as you point out would not be much anyway).  On the flipside, the tops of the trees are moving ''faster'' than orbit velocity at that altitude, so someone standing at the top feels a centrifugal 'gravity' away from the planet.  The tree itself does not (in fact '''can not''') "spin" because it is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_locking tidally locked]] - one end always points "in" toward planetary center, one end always points "out", much like how the same side of the Moon is always facing Earth.