Can a Plane on a Treadmill Take Off?

On Sat, 4 Feb 2006 08:44:24 -0800, "RST Engineering"
wrote:

Cecil Adams (world's smartest human being) is correct to a first
approximation. The correct answer to a second approximation is that it will
take off normally less some small correction factor for the increased
friction of the tires, wheels, and wheel bearings.

Note the "trick" of the question. It does not say that the conveyor keeps
the AIRPLANE at zero speed relative to the real world, just that it rotates
at a speed equal to the airplane moving forward. The question itself
supposes forward velocity of the aircraft relative to the earth and the only
thing the conveyor belt does is spin the wheels twice as fast.

Jim


Jim, you've got to realize that it must be a tough job being the
smartest man in the world.

I like being the second smartest. But as George Wallace once put it
after a reporter asked him, "You think that you're the smartest man in
the world?" No he said, "but I'm the smartest man in this room."

Mike Weller

And I'm not a George Wallace fan, for many reasons.