You're all wrong. The plane achieves a quantum state in which it both takes off and does not. You do not know which until you observe the plane at which point the probability waveform collapses and the whole thing turns into a blue whale or a bowl of petunias. For these obvious reasons this experiment has never been properly tried.
Thats entierly too much Hitchhikers Guide for this hour of the morning! Given that its not stated whether there is an atmosphere or not I guess we cant really answer this one. Moriquendi
How do you know exactly what will happen if it's never been done before? Theories can be said, but just wait and see.
20 pages isnt all that bad. i was on a different forum when this came around a couple years ago and there were near 75 pages. but i think that it would take off aslong as the bearing for the wheels were up 2 movin at twice the take off speed if the conveyor was at the same speed as the actual plane not the wheels. i think
Even without frictionless bearings the force that they apply to the plane would be negligible compared to the thrust of the plane's engine(s).
i've never thrown a chicken in front of a transport truck going down the highway but I still know exactly what will happen. (with a small degree of error due to unknown variables)
Ah - a very good point. I would have said "...until the belt's velocity approaches infinity", but I remembered - friction is independent of velocity. F = uN, no v or a terms to be seen. Thus, it doesn't matter how the question is worded. As long as we can assume that the plane's wheels can deal with very high RPMs (nigh-infinite), the plane will take off. to me for continuing the thread, though. Final word - the plane takes off. Its only connection to the ground is through a set of very slippery, well-lubricated wheels that, as with many physics mind-problems, can be approximated to have no real upper limits on torques and speeds. For all practical purposes, the plane could have hovercraft-esque landing gear, and be floating just above the runway - there's a similar lack of interface with the ground the moment the pilots take off the brakes.
But things like rolling resistance also affect the plane, friction is not directly releated to friction, but increased speed deforms materials in ways that affect coefficient of friction.
Gahhhhh!!! If the plane can obtain enough airspeed it WILL take off, that simple. It doesn't mean crap if there is a conveyor belt or a blue F*CKING whale underneath it, as long as it has enough forward momentum to create enough lift it will go airborne. This feels like the kind of argument that I have had while I was drunk, enough people saying basically the same thing but differently enough that there is a lot of slurred yelling.
well from my perspective there really isnt enough information to tell if it will take off or not. if the treadmill is going the speed of the airplane then yes it will take off because once the plane gets up enough thrust to push it forward against the friction of the wheels it will take off. but if they are going to match the speed of the wheels i do not think it will take off because there will be too much friction of the wheels for it to gain any speed while going against that much friction. im not a expert on this kind of stuff being only 17 but thats my theory. It will also depend on the aircrafts weight and wing area and etc. so over all i say its a maybe. too many ifs at this point to tell.
No you don't, if could rebound off the bumper and survive, it could get thrown into the wheel and be squashed etc. It's like Black Holes, people can say "Oh you'll get killed 50ft from the centre etc" when infact you have no idea what will happen, because it's all theory.
rebound and survive for what, 10 seconds before it bleeds to death internally? did you know that an impact at about 40kph is enough to seperate internal organs from the skeletal system? and getting crushed under a wheel still means death. bottom line is that I know that when a chicken comes in contact with 40,000kg going 100kph the end result isn't that hard to predict. my point wasn't that I can say exactly instant per instant what is going to happen, just that I know what the end result is going to be. In the example of the airplane (which on the show is an ultralight) and the conveyer belt (god knows how they rigged that thing together) there are lots of variables that could happen, and all of them will have an effect on getting the plane airborne. but in the end it is going to fly. The airdensity will have an effect on the distance required for it to get airborne, the wind speed and direction will have an effect, etc etc. but it will still fly. and comparing a chicken and a transport truck to a black hole, a little different. I have driven transport trucks and I have held a chicken. have you ever seen a black hole in person? I haven't. and looking into the sky doesn't count.
well upon further thought and using my gas powered model r/c plane for reference there is no doubt that this plane will fly. the 1st way i mentioned in my first post is that the treadmill will be going same speed as plane which will just effect the wheels because think of it this way. you are standing on a tread mill with rollerblades on with a rope attached to the wall infront of you with no slack in it. you pull on the rope which accelerates you forward with no relation to the wheels because they arent propelling you. so you go forward whether the treadmill is moving or not. same principle with the plane. now for the second impossible way is to match the speed of wheels with the tread mill which goes against physics and isnt possible. because it would basically be limiting the speed of the wheels. the plane will fly.
