The author alternatively could have said 130 GPa, which is more consistent with the common practice of stating tensile strength in MPa and GPa.
To put this into perspective, 130 GPa / 100 kPa = 1 300 000 atmospheres. I won't be holding my breath for a space elevator any time soon! On Saturday 26 June 2004 07:47, Bill Hooper wrote: > The good graphic specified the power of the power laser beam to be "2.4 > MW" and the tensile strength of the ribbon or cable connecting the > orbiting space station to the surface of the earth > as "1.3 x 10^11 n/m^2".
