A different way to think about this is if you pulled an inelastic chain tight to the earth, and closed the loop you would have the starting condition. Then, sta

A different way to think about this is if you pulled an inelastic chain tight to the earth, and closed the loop you would have the starting condition. Then, standing where you are you cut the chain, grabbed an extra yard of the chain and spliced it to the touching ends of the starting chain lying on the ground, laying that extra yard folded perpendicular to the starting chain wrapped around the earth. That extra chain added is now sticking out half a yard from the starting chain. When you think about it that way, and I ask you “would that extra yard make a difference?”, where does your intuition lead you? With that visual, I would say, that is a ton of slack, I could loop it around my body. I think this is really more about how you frame the question than some flaw in intuition, although I’m not trying to say humans have flaws with our intuition.