I’m thinking Mt Chimborazo in Ecuador…at over 20000 ft, it’s peak it the farthest from the center of the earth (while not being the highest above sea level thanks to the equatorial bulge).
Sure, it doesn’t remove air resistance or friction, but halving it, even cutting it by 1/3 is a massive leap in efficiency and negates much of the extreme engineering and materials needed to overcome the friction….plus, as you mentioned, there’s the rotational speed advantage from launching on the equator vs Florida.
Also, while extremely minor, there’s also a slight reduction in gravitational pull at those heights. A joule saved is a joule earned!

I have probably mentioned this, but IMHO portal was invented by Terry Pratchett.

Discworld, Book 22, The Last Continent (1998)

The wizards looked at the gently rippling surface. There should have been several feet of solid wood sticking out of it.
“Well, well, well,” said the Archchancellor, going back in out of the cold air. “Do you know, I’ve never actually seen one of these?”
“Anyone remember Archchancellor Bewdley’s boots?” said the Senior Wrangler, helping himself to some cold mutton from the trolley. “He made a mistake and got one of the things opened up in the left boot. Very tricky. You can’t go walking around with one foot in another dimension.”
“Well, no…” said Ridcully, staring at the tropical scene and tapping his chin thoughtfully with the seashell.
“Can’t see what you’re treading in, for one thing,” said the Senior Wrangler.
“One opened up in one of the cellars once, all by itself,” said the Dean. “Just a round black hole. Anything you put in it just disappeared. So old Archchancellor Weatherwax had a privy built over it.”
“Very sensible idea,” said Ridcully, still looking thoughtful.
“We thought so too, until we found the other one that had opened in the attic. Turned out to be the other side of the same hole. I’m sure I don’t need to draw you a picture.”
“I’ve never heard of these!” said Ponder Stibbons. “The possibilities are amazing!”
“Everyone says that when they first hear about them,” said the Senior Wrangler. “But when you’ve been a wizard as long as I have, my boy, you’ll learn that as soon as you find anything that offers amazing possibilities for the improvement of the human condition it’s best to put the lid back on and pretend it never happened.”
“But if you could get one to open above another you could drop something through the bottom hole and it’d come out of the top hole and fall through the bottom hole again…It’d reach meteoritic speed and the amount of power you could generate would be—”
“That’s pretty much what happened between the attic and the cellar,” said the Dean, taking a cold chicken leg. “Thank goodness for air friction, that’s all I’ll say.”
Ponder waved his hand gingerly through the window and felt the sun’s heat.
“And no one’s ever studied them?” he said.

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I must disagree.

First, it's precession, not procession, paired with the "caster effect" and static friction. It's a self correcting system that only works when in forward motion.
This nonsense with counter rotating wheels countering the gyroscopic effect ignores the fact that only the forward rotating wheels are using friction to direct the path of the bicycle based on their angles. It's not JUST the gyroscopic effect, that only determines the resistance to angular change, it's friction directed by gyroscopic precession and the self correcting caster effect. Come on.

Nobody knows how we ride bikes?! (A different claim from we don't know why they can remain upright when ghost ridden) Nonsense, it's balance plain and simple. If you don't keep the center of gravity exactly above the contact points with the ground, you tilt. When the centrifugal force exceeds static friction of the tires you slide out or when gravity exceeds the opposing centrifugal force caused by turning, you fall. Try turning your bike but staying exactly upright, no lean. Now, when you heal, try leaning without turning, lock the wheel straight, you'll fall again. It's multiple forces in concert.

I think a decent physics teacher would wipe the floor with this. It ignores so much to make these "we just don't know" claims.

I mean, it seemed pretty obvious that there was no way this would work. But I absolutely appreciate the thorough real-world proving of it.

I think the main operative failure here is that any slapping implement will be cooled by the air for most of its cycle. So there will be an upper bound after which the air-chilled surface of the "slapper" will cool the chicken by an amount equal to the friction-induced heating effect. Even if the high speed didn't destroy the machine or the meat, the air temp would make the effort impossible.

🎵 Where has all the friction gone 🎵

It can't be.
Friction alone will eventually halt it.

Serious question: are poles mounted on ball bearings so that they swivel WITHOUT ripping all your skin off in a weird kind of friction burn?

Being Amazon, the cause must have been friction.

Can you back that up with facts and logic?

Tom Sawyer

A modern day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride
Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
He reserves the quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets by on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you
No, his mind is not for rent
To any God or government
Always hopeful yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness, catch the wit
Catch the spirit, catch the spit
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets by on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to the friction of the day -RUSH

Actually, I believe it was friction. *frowny face*

Dropping like flies. Gravity vs Friction.

There are a handful of companies working on omnidirectional treadmills, it's interesting that they have totally different approaches.

More common than the treadmill made of treadmills approach is to have a super low friction platform, combined with a rigid harness around the waist to keep you from actually making progress in any direction. Sort of like trying to run on ice and failing hilariously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBEfOcNTaVA