Search results

I bet you were all celebrating my birthday! :beardbng:

Did anyone watch the new Mythbusters covering this topic?

I saw that movie this past Friday in an IMAX theater. While it didn't quite meet my expectations, it was still a great movie, IMO.

Wow :lol:

It has served me well in the Hollywood Stock Exchange.

So do I win anything? I want some money or expensive gifts here, not just a title.

My thread has turned into a discussion about pooping birds. The Internet never ceases to amaze me.

Fair enough. As long as you understand what I'm trying to say I'm happy. We obviously have two different opinions of what exactly the question is asking and what situation it presents. I didn't write the question myself, I took it from another board, so I can't tell you what the original author...

There's no magic in the question. Don't even think about the treadmill matching the speed of the plane, that just adds more confusion. Just imagine that the treadmill is moving at 500mph. The plane is sitting on the treadmill and, at this time, is not even attempting to move forward. At this...

If the treadmill was matching the speed of the wheels then the treadmill would have to gain speed infinitely if the plane ever moved. If the plane is moving, the wheels MUST be spinning at the combined speed of the plane and treadmill and then the treadmill is NOT matching the speed of the...

People with much more physics knowledge than myself have agreed with me. In fact, they were the ones who convinced me I was wrong when I originally thought the plane would NOT take off. The wheels do have some amount of friction but it's not enough to stop the plane from moving forward. Plus...

The question simply says that the treadmill will match the speed of the plane. That doesn't mean it will create an impossible force to hold it back. It simply spins backwards at 100mph if the plane is moving forward at 100mph. The reason I keep bringing up the wheels is because the treadmill...

A person running relies on their feet to propel them forward. Feet act on the ground. A plane relies on its jet engines or propellers. Jet engines and propellers act on air.

Here's a few links to answers for this question. It's a lot of reading so enter at your own risk, but hopefully someone from one of these links can explain it better than me. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060203.html http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=428718...

I've seen this same question discussed on many boards and it always works the same way. At first most people give the same arguments you're giving. Gradually, they start to realize what's really happening in the situation posed by the question. I don't have any more arguments for you, I would...

It doesn't have to be. When you're holding the car in one place the car most definitely is not moving faster than the treadmill. Yet still, the treadmill isn't able to force it back.

The only reason I mention wheels is because when people read this question they often times think of a car that relies on its wheels to move it forward. This, of course, is not the case with a plane. If the plane is moving forward at 50 mph, the treadmill will be moving backward at 50mph. This...

The jets are the external force in that they are not affected by the ground. If you had a giant fan in front of the plane, that could work against the jets. Moving ground, however, is not going to affect them. When I originally read this question on another board I thought the same thing as...

If you hold a hot wheels car on a moving treadmill, will the treadmill force your hand and the hot wheels car back, or will your hand keep the car in one place? You'll probably agree that you'd be able to keep the car in one place. Well, in that example, the treadmill would be moving faster than...

I'm saying that the plane WILL move forward and, therefore, create the necessary lift. The treadmill is working against the wheels, not the engines...and it's the engines that move the plane forward. The wheels just provide a way to reduce friction against the plane, and in this case they would...