Opinions on an interesting but quite stupid question?

[jake]

Ok, so... sometimes people think 'what would happen?'...

I'm not sure where or what the highest point above sea-level in the world is, but lets call it 'X.ft'. Now, we will add 500ft to 'X.ft' giving us 'Y.ft'.

If we were to build pillars all over the world reaching 'Y.ft' above sea level, now we build a massive roof across all of these giant pillars, effectively putting the earth inside a shell.

I know this would be near impossible to do, but let's ignore things such as this killing all life on earth due to blocking out sunlight, totally screwing up weather etc. because that's not the question I'm getting to... If we were then to destroy every one of these pillars simultaneously, but 'gently' (no explosions, etc) and the 'shell' around earth was strong enough not to just collapse in, would it pretty much levitate, leaving a gap of nothing between the 'shell' and earth? Or would our planet frantically bounce around inside this shell, repeatedly crushing different areas of the world?.. Or would something else happen?

Ridiculous question I know, but does anyone have a clever answer as to what would happen? Or maybe an interesting point/view?

Most satisfying answer gets best answer.

[Josh M]

Well theoretically I guess it would float given that the roof was equal in mass / m2, as the gravity wouldn't change across the lattice, meaning each part of the sphere around the earth would experience the same force acting inwards towards the core.

Very interesting question by the way : )