The speaker, Michael, discusses the history of tallest structures in human history, starting with the Pyramids of Giza, which were the tallest structures for nearly four thousand years. The speaker notes that a Cathedral in England was the first structure to surpass the height of the Pyramids in the 1300s. The speaker mentions the Eiffel Tower, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building as other significant height records.
The speaker highlights that for a long time, the tallest structures were buildings, but since the 1950s, radio and TV towers became the tallest structures due to their non-habitable nature. However, the Empire State Building broke this record in the mid-1950s. The speaker mentions that the Warsaw radio mast in Poland was the tallest structure for a while until it collapsed in 1991. The KVLY TV mast in North Dakota then became the tallest standing structure.
The speaker then discusses the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is currently the tallest structure. He explains that the height of the Burj Khalifa allows for the observation of the sunset from the base and the top of the building. The speaker also discusses the concept of a space elevator, a theoretical structure that could be built beyond the Earth's atmosphere and used to transport objects into space more cheaply. However, he notes that there are challenges and uncertainties associated with building such a structure, including the need to dodge space debris and the materials required.
1. The Pyramids of Giza were built by ancient Egyptians and were the tallest structures humans had ever built, reaching a height of 147 meters. They remained the tallest structures for nearly 4,000 years until the Cathedral in England was built in the 1300s. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
2. A building is technically a structure in which at least 50% of its height comes from floor plates where people can live, work, and chill out. If it's not habitable, it's considered a tower. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
3. The Lincoln Cathedral in England finally surpassed the height of the pyramids. A number of churches continue to be built that keep breaking and setting new records. The next long-term record holder was the Eiffel Tower in France. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
4. The Chrysler Building in New York surpassed the Eiffel Tower. The Empire State Building in New York is the first structure ever built by a man that was so tall. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
5. The Empire State Building is interesting because it was the first structure ever built that was so tall rather than just continuing to accelerate as you fell. You would actually stop accelerating because you would reach the fastest possible speed your limp body can fall out. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
6. In the mid-1950s, humans started to build radio and TV towers, which could be way taller than the buildings that had been built previously. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
7. The Warsaw radio mast in Poland held the record for the tallest thing ever built by humans until 1991, when it collapsed. The KVLY TV mast in North Dakota became the tallest still standing structure. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
8. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the current record-holder for the tallest thing humans have ever built. The height of this building is so high that you can literally watch the sunset from the base of the building and then take a super-fast elevator all the way up to the top and watch the same sunset again. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
9. The Burj Khalifa is nowhere near as tall as Mount Everest but the tallest structure that we could potentially build wouldn't be as tall as Mount Everest. It would be way way taller. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
10. The problem with building things that are really tall is that they get heavier and heavier and have to support their own weight but only up to a point. If a structure was so tall that it wound up at the altitude of a geostationary orbit, it would start to feel a new force not just a gravitational force downward but all of a sudden this new centrifugal force up and outward. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
11. A space elevator is a structure that could potentially be built up to heights of more than 35,000 kilometers high. This kind of structure is known as a space elevator. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
12. Unfortunately, there aren't any materials known to science today that are strong enough to make building something that large feasible with the exception maybe of carbon nanotubes or boron nitride. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
13. If we went to a smaller celestial body like the moon, we could build a space elevator today out of stuff like Kevlar. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
14. The taller the cable of a space elevator, the faster the far end of it will be traveling. If the cable is more than 50 thousand kilometers long, its far end will be traveling near escape velocity. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)
15. The first country to deploy a space elevator will have a 95% cost advantage and will possibly be able to control all space-related activities. (https://www.stackoverflow.com)