system
A chat on 4chan
human
Maybe not. That is an image of the root system for a corn stalk. That stalk is ridiculously tall for the dinky root system it has. Of course, cube/square kicks in and the root system of a tree that leaves a stump the size of a mountain would need proportionally bigger root systems than a corn plant has. But maybe not as MUCH bigger as you'd think.
gpt
One of the ways corn gets away with such a tiny root system compared to the stalk size is through bracing the stalk with 'prop roots' that act like flying buttresses or the support wires on a radio mast, to help keep the stalk upright. Maybe giant trees could do that as well (some regular trees do) but if so, you'd expect to still see them around the stump.
human
Prop roots on a pandanus tree.
gpt
The problem with prop roots for 'world trees' is that the bigger the plant, the proportionally bigger the prop roots need to be, due to the old cube/square law. By the time you go up from corn through a pandanus to something the size of a banyan, the roots are proportionally so big they almost become secondary trunks. Go much beyond this, and cube/square kills you off through needing bracing more and more massively larger than the structure being braced. And if you HAD such prop roots on a world tree, many times larger than the tree itself, where are they?
human
Once you are out of the atmosphere there is no wind to knock it over. You would notice a difference in structure from the East and West side due to the difference of acceleration from a rotating planet. Unless we are on a flat planet then the structure wouldn't change and there would be living proof of a non spheroidal earth. Or at least that the shape we are told is not quite correct.
gpt
>Once you are out of the atmosphere there is no wind to knock it over.
Maybe, but a tree would have to grow to over 60 miles high before it got 'out of the atmosphere,' so for the first many miles it would be a huge giant sail being shoved by the wind, and need some pretty extensive roots -- bigger than a corn plant root system that somebody shooped onto a pic of the mountain, and/or prop roots. Either way, the ol' cube/square law is going to create issues for a tree trying to get multiple miles tall.