We have an airplane and a conveyor belt will it fly?

Nick Drake · Post by **Nick Drake** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:29 pm

Gotcha lol!

(saw this on my other forum and cracked up)

glasswars · Post by **glasswars** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:49 pm

I don't get it..

Nick Drake · Post by **Nick Drake** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:53 pm

You've never heard the airplane/conveyor belt debate? it's worse than the egg/chicken one.

"A plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyer). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyer moves in the opposite direction. This conveyer has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyer to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the plane take off?"

glasswars · Post by **glasswars** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:55 pm

Oh haha! Probably would of been funnier if I knew about it beforehand though.

03blackrt · Post by **03blackrt** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 11:02 pm

The aero saying is "with enough money, anything can fly,,,, and crash. "

KrackstaR · Post by **KrackstaR** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:57 am

naw that wouldnt work due to the wind not moving fast enuff under the wings.

someone correct me if i am wrong,

rOniN · Post by **rOniN** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:29 am

Well, I guess I could get into all the properties of flight and what not, but I'm not in the mood.

That plane in the picture wont fly. And for the quote by Nick the plane wouldn't take off either since there is no air passing across the airfoil to produce lift. I agree with Krackstar

welchspro · Post by **welchspro** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:42 am

wont fly. technically the plane would be standing still. as for the pic lol...no as well

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:23 am

uh, had me confused there for a while...

thanks for the explanation

but if the conveyour belt was moving fast enough to where it would "push" some wind under the wings.... would the plane then fly?

rOniN · Post by **rOniN** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:53 am

^^air has to move over the wing also creating a pressure change where the pressure is less above the wing. That belt would have to be moving really really fast to even make it a possibility.

t vago · Post by **t vago** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:06 pm

Unlike a car, whose motion depends on a direct mechanical connection between the motor and the wheels, the aircraft's motion depends on thrust created by its engines. The aircraft's wheels are free to spin, and are not coupled to the engines in any way. In the description of this thought experiment, the conveyer belt would speed up at an insanely high acceleration in a failed attempt to keep the aircraft from moving.

That being said, I would say that if the conveyer belt didn't fly apart from the centrifugal force around where the belt changes sides, and if the aircraft's wheels didn't fly apart from the centrifugal force from spinning at an insanely high amount of speed, the aircraft will take off.

Nick Drake · Post by **Nick Drake** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:14 pm

t vago wrote:Unlike a car, whose motion depends on a direct mechanical connection between the motor and the wheels, the aircraft's motion depends on thrust created by its engines. The aircraft's wheels are free to spin, and are not coupled to the engines in any way. In the description of this thought experiment, the conveyer belt would speed up at an insanely high acceleration in a failed attempt to keep the aircraft from moving.

That being said, I would say that if the conveyer belt didn't fly apart from the centrifugal force around where the belt changes sides, and if the aircraft's wheels didn't fly apart from the centrifugal force from spinning at an insanely high amount of speed, the aircraft will take off.

Sounds copy and pasted but yeah that's the answer.

It doesn't matter what the ground is doing, the plane is propelled by pushing air behind it.

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:58 pm

wtf, can't planes go up and down now a days? who cares about belts and flying and blowing wheels up.

fusion210 · Post by **fusion210** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 10:05 pm

I put this on a huge forum a while ago, spawned much debate. Someone even made a page for it.
http://www.planeonatreadmill.com/