Oops, typo. I meant tapered. As in varying in width. You could imagine a tether that has a 5mm diameter at the surface (in a sort of ribbon shape), but has a di

Oops, typo. I meant tapered. As in varying in width. You could imagine a tether that has a 5mm diameter at the surface (in a sort of ribbon shape), but has a diameter of 500mm at the geostationary orbit. According to this (http://sustainable-nano.com/2014/04/01/space-elevator-a-lasting-dream-for-a-sky-reaching-tree/ http://sustainable-nano.com/2014/04/01/space-elevator-a-last...) a carbon nanotube has a factor between ground and orbit of 1.6 or so, and for steel it's something crazy like 1.6e33.