Chronos, you’re the expert. Can you address the last two posts please?
Or a way of converting low-quality CNTs into high-quality ones. Perhaps an annealing-like process could work, or something like zone purification for silicon ingots. I imagine that “perfect” CNTs are in a low energy state, and a process that allows defects to jiggle elsewhere could be effective.
An additional question came to mind. If you are at the top of the space elevator at geosynchronous orbit, according to the formula early in the thread, you would still be experiencing 2.3% of a G. Is that correct? My initial naive thought was that you would be in free fall at that point, but I can’t decide if that’s true.
If you were to step off the space elevator at that point, what would happen? Would you fall back to earth? Or would the velocity of the top of the space elevator be enough to keep you in orbit?
At what height on the space elevator COULD you step off and not plunge back to earth? (ignore all the small factors that would eventually de-stabilize your orbit.)
Thanks,
J.
At the altitude of geosynchronous orbit, if you stepped off, you would remain in geosynchronous orbit. But that is the only point you can do that - any lower, and you are travelling too slowly for orbit, and you will fall to earth. Any higher, and you are travelling too fast.
Yes. You would “be in free fall” by stepping off at ANY altitude. The difference is what happens at the end of your fall.
Interestingly, I think this is relevant to the earlier debate in this thread (Chronos insisting that astronauts feel like they’re falling, etc.). For me (but apparently not for all astronauts), the word “fall” best describes a sensation where you KNOW OR FEAR THAT IT WILL END BADLY OR ABRUPTLY. I think this is key. It appies well to all the examples mentioned in this thread. To just cite one, the one about diving off a diving board with your eyes closed, and entering a Zen-like mental state or not.
This is reflected also in the metaphorical extended senses of the word “to fall”: fall from grace, fall of the Roman Empire…falling in love is weird one, but maybe there are some possible “fear of splat” overtones there, as well. 
Note that the actual end of the space elevator cable would extend well past geosynchronous orbit. The force beyond the geosynchronous point has to balance the force pulling down from below it. (It wouldn’t have to be exceedingly long- it could have a large mass at the end.)
And it wouldn’t just be the cable. The elevator itself would continue out for various reasons. To launch interplanetary probes, for maintenance purposes and perhaps there would be an observatory at the actual top.
Gravity never diminishes all the way to zero, no matter how far out you get (it can get “close enough” to zero, but how far that is depends on how close you consider “close enough”). If you were stationary at geosynchronous height, then you would start falling downwards at 2.3% of a g. But on the elevator, you wouldn’t be stationary: You’re moving in a circle. Near the bottom of the elevator, you can approximate yourself as stationary, because it makes very little difference compared to the gravity at the Earth’s surface, but up at the top, where gravity is weaker, it’s very relevant.