Part 3/5:
The faster you run, the farther you jump. Increasing your speed means you land further out from the edge. If you could run fast enough, you'd curve around the Earth and start orbiting it rather than falling back down. This is essentially how orbit works—you're balancing on the edge of falling back to Earth and traveling forward fast enough to continually "miss" it.
The Engineering Marvel of Achieving Orbit
The heart of orbital mechanics is velocity. Achieving that optimal speed so that you can 'fall around' the planet requires not just vertical lift (getting high) but also horizontal velocity (going fast enough). This dual requirement makes orbital travel a formidable engineering challenge.