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Title: Brainteaser: There's an airplane on the runway..
Source: Elsewhere
URL Source: http://www.someplaceelse.com
Published: Dec 1, 2005
Author: I have no idea
Post Date: 2005-12-01 01:10:02 by Jhoffa_
Keywords: Brainteaser:, airplane, runway..
Views: 2338
Comments: 202

Imagine a plane is sat on the beginning of a massive conveyor belt/travelator type arrangement, as wide and as long as a runway, and intends to take off. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels at any given time, moving in the opposite direction of rotation. There is no wind.

Can the plane take off?

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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 111.

#33. To: Jhoffa_ (#0)

Can the plane take off?

Without reading too many of the responses so far, if I understand right, at whatever speed the plane begins to move forward, the conveyer belt moves backwards.

Assuming the plane is propelled forward by jet or prop engines and not through a drive transmission to the wheels (which would not be a particularly well designed aircraft), then it won't stop the plane from going airborne. The only difference it would make is that the wheels would be spinning twice as fast at the airspeed when it takes off (which I'm assuming won't cause them to blow out, causing the plane to crash).

Neil McIver  posted on  2005-12-01   16:14:23 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

Assuming the plane is propelled forward by jet or prop engines and not through a drive transmission to the wheels (which would not be a particularly well designed aircraft), then it won't stop the plane from going airborne. The only difference it would make is that the wheels would be spinning twice as fast at the airspeed when it takes off (which I'm assuming won't cause them to blow out, causing the plane to crash).

The only way the plane could take off is if it actually did move forward or up. Since the force of the engines is basically parallel with the ground then the only option is moving forward to become airborne. How does a multi-ton object become air born when it has no upward force being applied? The only way it could move forward is if it skidded down the runway and took off that way. I don't think they make planes capable of doing that, so it wouldn't take off. But if they had jet engines powerful enough and planes able to withstand the skidding, then it would take off.

RickyJ  posted on  2005-12-01   22:55:42 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

How does a multi-ton object become air born when it has no upward force being applied? The only way it could move forward is if it skidded down the runway and took off that way.

Moving forward generates the lift required to climb, of course.

Since the plane is not thrusting against the belt, but against the gases being expelled by the engine, it would accelerate.

On further thought, though, the only way the plane could move forward is if the wheels turned fasted than the conveyor belt, and the operation of the belt would make that impossible.

Ergo, as soon as thrust was applied, both the belt and the wheels would accelerate to an infinite speed, at which time the wheels, and probably the belt would both instantly explode, killing everyone and making the question moot. At that point the question would need to be redefined.

Neil McIver  posted on  2005-12-02   12:09:27 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

#142. To: Neil McIver (#111)

the only way the plane could move forward is if the wheels turned fasted than the conveyor belt

nope, the wheels and conveyer belt are none issues

wakeup  posted on  2005-12-02 20:01:15 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

So you read Soren's post huh? LOL! Just kidding! Good analysis, except for the exploding part, I think the wheels would break off before that happened, thus causing the conveyer belt to stop.

RickyJ  posted on  2005-12-02 21:28:20 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  

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