The conveyor belt thread.

[denislawsbackheel]

Infantile stuff. Clearly it won't fly.

 

[Gelsons Dad]

Infantile stuff. Clearly it won't fly.

Well it's clearly not infantile as the wording is ambiguous enough to cause grown ups to disagree.

 

[york away to this!]

how long is the conveyor belt?

how windy is it?

 

[Tuearts right boot]

Infantile stuff. Clearly it won't fly.

Well I've been on a plane and it will take off. So there. Take a virtual kick in the bollocks round the virtual bike sheds for being a twat.

 

[LittleStan]

Plane would not take off as it would still be stationary. The plane needs the incoming air to pass over/under the wings to give it lift. There was a mythbusters episode about this very thing.

Did you watch said episode?

 

[Bill Walker]

this threads got wings

 

[TangerineSteve17]

All to do with what the driving force is isn't it? If you were driving your car at 50mph, head on into a 50mph wind, you'd still be going forward. The wind alone ain't gonna stop you.
So because the plane requires only the air, then it should take off shouldn't it? - It shouldn't matter that the floor is moving, if the pilot puts his hand out of the window he'd feel the wind sweeping past surely.

 

[Blue Mist]

Does the pilot work for Easy Jet or Ryan Air. I think we have a right to know.

Why wont they tell us ? What are they hiding ?

 

[mad4city]

Plane would not take off as it would still be stationary. The plane needs the incoming air to pass over/under the wings to give it lift. There was a mythbusters episode about this very thing.

How can it be stationary if it's travelling at 180mph? Either it's travelling, or it's stationary.

If it were a paper aeroplane, it'd definitely be stationery.






Coat's on, already.

 

[stonerblue]

Anybody who thinks the plane would not take off is as thick as fucking mince.

Not really. It's a pretty counter-intuitive and often badly-worded puzzle.

This is the question asked: "If a plane was travelling down a giant conveyor belt at 180mph, trying to take off, but the conveyor belt was travelling at 180 mph in the opposite direction, would it be able to?

You would still have the thrust of the jet engines at the back."

IMO, the question is pretty straightforward. The jet engine/propeller provides the forward movement by pulling against the air - what happens on the ground is irrelevant if the wheels are free to rotate.

Traction?