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Mythbusters to take on: PLANE ON A TREADMILL!!

The plane will fly if and only if Chuck Norris allows it to.

Come on did it really take three pages before someone had to write that
 
bert said:
You are correct that it couldn't happen in real life. It got ugly after that. Make a graph of what you just described (always liked making students do that...) and you'll see why.
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I'm wouldn't know how to go about making a graph, but I'll try to describe what I was talking about. You start with a stationary wheel. As soon as you apply any force, the wheel starts to roll and the conveyor matches its movement, and since force is still being applied, the wheel tries to turn faster, which causes the conveyor to move faster, etc. It's a mutually reinforcing system, so the wheel and conveyor spin up to infinity, and how fast that happens depends only on how closely the conveyor can match the wheel's speed.
 
I guess if I was aiming at the Socratic method, I would follow that with "can you have acceleration without time?".
 
6fc3836e.jpg
 
I think part of the problem, as previously noted, is that there appears to be two different modes of thinking:

1. The airplane stays in a stationary point over the ground, traveling only as fast as the conveyor belt
OR
2. The airplane is moving across the ground in the opposite direction of the conveyor belt.

Am I understanding this correctly? If so, #1 will not fly and #2 will.
 
nugget81 said:
I think part of the problem, as previously noted, is that there appears to be two different modes of thinking:

1. The airplane stays in a stationary point over the ground, traveling only as fast as the conveyor belt
Click to expand...

That was my original thinking, from the last treadmill thread. Essentially, a wing with wheels spinning on a treadmill. No wind flowing over the wing, and no engines providing thrust.

It is a moot point. Thanks to the good folks at Boeing, I need neither a runway or a treadmill for flight. Life is good.
 
KBayDog said:
That was my original thinking, from the last treadmill thread. Essentially, a wing with wheels spinning on a treadmill. No wind flowing over the wing, and no engines providing thrust.

It is a moot point. Thanks to the good folks at Boeing, I need neither a runway or a treadmill for flight. Life is good.
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I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IF YOU ARE FLYING AT 25000' AND PUT THE GEAR DOWN...DOES IT MATTER WHAT THE @#$% THE WHEELS ARE DOING????
 
scoober78 said:
IF YOU ARE FLYING AT 25000' AND PUT THE GEAR DOWN...DOES IT MATTER WHAT THE @#$% THE WHEELS ARE DOING????
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Who said anything about flying at 25,000'? The "myth" to be busted had an airplane on the deck (treadmill), NOT FLYING, and the challenge was to get it airborne by using a treadmill. If you will notice, I said that I thought the discussion revolved around a "wing" with no airflow over it, no source of thrust, and just a treadmill underneath it spinning the tires.

Feel free to continue to geek out. This topic really doesn't interest me; I was just clarifying how I perceived the "treadmill challenge" when I first saw it. I've got more important things to do than debate this silliness.

More important things...like flying, for example. :D
 
Carno said:
No, actually the challenge is to get the plane flying in spite of the treadmill.
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Right. Hence my misunderstanding of the ORIGINAL "challenge." What I pictured was different than what was actually proposed.

It sure is fun watching everyone get riled up over it, though.
 
Here's the original brain teaser:

"On a day with absolutely calm wind, a plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyor). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyor moves in the opposite direction. The conveyor has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyor to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the airplane ever take off?"

And the answer is yes.
 
KBayDog said:
Right. Hence my misunderstanding of the ORIGINAL "challenge." What I pictured was different than what was actually proposed.

It sure is fun watching everyone get riled up over it, though.
Click to expand...

Ah, roger. It is pretty funny, but if I watch too long my head wants to explode.
 
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