Thread: Answer to the aeroplane problem on Facebook

Originally Posted by Fatso

Cant see why it cant take off , asuming all is equel with no trick asumtions or bull**** , all i can see hapening is the wheels will be rotating twice as fast as they would be rotating at normal take off speed .

Alf Garnet in "Death us do part" used to reckon a helicopter could climb into the air in London and just sit there and let the earth rotate untill it just come down and land in Sydney . .

He might need the axis to change also.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Read the question and the Preassumptions...
It’s NOT irrelevant when phrased as such.

Explanation:
The conveyor belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels
This is the problem! The wording of this quiz is wrong and makes it physically impossible.

Divide this situation to several steps. At first, everything is just the same as in my explanation above. We apply thrust and we run the conveyor belt in the opposite direction. The wheel starts turning. As the plane moves forward – the conveyor belt accelerates. Keep in mind the preassumption “conveyor belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels”.

When the aircraft moves forward then its wheels have to travel further than the conveyor belt has moved back. But this is impossible in this situation. The conveyor belt is designed to match the speed of the wheel – so it will increase the speed. But the plane still moves forward – there is again a difference between the speed of the wheel and the speed of the conveyor belt. But we do not allow such situation! So we increase the speed of the conveyor belt!

Actually, this is not a process that happens in steps – all of this happens simultaneously – the plane tries to accelerate and the conveyor accelerates to keep up with the wheels. Adding to the speed of wheels. And the wheels accelerate even more. So the conveyor belt…

It lasts until wheels and conveyor belt speed reaches infinity. Or until they reach the speed of light. If you wish to know what happens then – consult the screenwriters of Start Trek or Star Wars.

The wording of this quiz is wrong! This case is impossible. It is impossible right from the very beginning where the preassumption is that the speeds will always match. If we know (and we know!) the forces applied on the plane we know that during the takeoff there is a huge imbalance of forces. So quoting the Newtonian law:
*An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.*

The object will not stay motionless because we have unbalanced forces. So we can not design the conveyor belt to move at the same speed as wheels.

THEREFORE: Question is invalid..

I think it's valid, but the solution to the equation is just 0 so the answer is no as long as all conditions of the question are met.

Does the plane leak oil? If so, what effect would that have on traction?


Also,

The Goddamn Airplane on the Goddamn Treadmill | xkcd

Pity Steven Hawking is dead. He would tell you all the correct answer coz he was the "greatest human mind" (quote), of this century

Originally Posted by Fatso

Alf Garnet in "Death us do part" used to reckon a helicopter could climb into the air in London and just sit there and let the earth rotate untill it just come down and land in Sydney . .

Never had that problem with any helicopters that I flew. None of them had wheels!

Originally Posted by Old Farang

Never had that problem with any helicopters that I flew. None of them had wheels!

Thanks for clearing that up for us all,
I can now sleep peacefully

post deleted, swearing in pic

Originally Posted by Fatso

post deleted, swearing in pic

Ah Ho , I posted a funny pic with a Bloke scratching his head with a pained look on his face with a caption , "Ah jee,s not this **** again" with a four letter word for Poo in it .

Did not even think about the swear word in it but rules are rules i suppose , any way it was funny when applying to this subject .