Aeroplane + Conveyor belt on mythbusters
Discussion
Seems they have actually tested this out for the new series, should be covering the favourite topic of internet forums everywhere on Dec 12th episode in the US. I suspect it will just lead to more arguments rather than solving it though 
mercurynews said:
The episode, which airs in December, finds Savage and Hyneman tackling a question baffling everyone from bloggers to pilots: If a plane is traveling at takeoff speed on a conveyor belt, and that conveyor belt is matching the speed in reverse, can the plane take off?
'We put the plane on a quarter-mile conveyor belt and tested it out,' says Savage about the experiment using a pilot and his Ultralight plane. 'I won't tell you what the outcome was, but the pilot and his entire flight club got it wrong.'
http://www.mercurynews.com/food/ci_7320206?nclick_check=1'We put the plane on a quarter-mile conveyor belt and tested it out,' says Savage about the experiment using a pilot and his Ultralight plane. 'I won't tell you what the outcome was, but the pilot and his entire flight club got it wrong.'
Road_Terrorist said:
Seems they have actually tested this out for the new series, should be covering the favourite topic of internet forums everywhere on Dec 12th episode in the US. I suspect it will just lead to more arguments rather than solving it though
Oh mercurynews said:
The episode, which airs in December, finds Savage and Hyneman tackling a question baffling everyone from bloggers to pilots: If a plane is traveling at takeoff speed on a conveyor belt, and that conveyor belt is matching the speed in reverse, can the plane take off?
'We put the plane on a quarter-mile conveyor belt and tested it out,' says Savage about the experiment using a pilot and his Ultralight plane. 'I won't tell you what the outcome was, but the pilot and his entire flight club got it wrong.'
http://www.mercurynews.com/food/ci_7320206?nclick_check=1'We put the plane on a quarter-mile conveyor belt and tested it out,' says Savage about the experiment using a pilot and his Ultralight plane. 'I won't tell you what the outcome was, but the pilot and his entire flight club got it wrong.'
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
W00DY said:
I can't possibly see how it couldn't take off but if they all got it wrong there must be something we haven't considered?
There's a possibility that the thrust of a microlight wouldn't be enough to overcome the friction between the wheels and the conveyor belt, especially with a fat American at the controls, so the plane might not get enough speed up to take off. Microlights are hardly the most powerful of planes. With any other sort of plane, it would of course easily take off as the friction would be neglible. I believe the original conundrum involved a 747, which would be a very clear cut thing!RobM77 said:
W00DY said:
I can't possibly see how it couldn't take off but if they all got it wrong there must be something we haven't considered?
There's a possibility that the thrust of a microlight wouldn't be enough to overcome the friction between the wheels and the conveyor belt, especially with a fat American at the controls, so the plane might not get enough speed up to take off. Microlights are hardly the most powerful of planes. With any other sort of plane, it would of course easily take off as the friction would be neglible. I believe the original conundrum involved a 747, which would be a very clear cut thing!out of interest has anyone considering the possibility that the plane will take off..... BACKWORDS!!!
Someone just has to email the producers this thread
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t...
http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t...
Matthew_Eames said:
...so the planes wheels are traveling at takeoff speed, wont make any difference, there wont be enough wind speed over the wings to generate lift
what a pointless excercise, anyone could work that out
Planes are driven by pushing on the air, and this doesn't change whether on or off a conveyor belt. Take off speed is relative to the air, and the plane is powered by pushing on the air - what happens to the wheels is not of any great significance. The only thing that's different is that the plane will have a force on it slowing it down slightly due to the friction of the wheels and the conveyor belt pulling backwards. As I said above, most planes would shrug this off and continue to power forwards up to take off speed with the wheels spinning like crazy.what a pointless excercise, anyone could work that out
You do realise that no matter what the result, the aftermath will be 50% of people saying, "I told you so" and 50% of people saying, "They did it wrong, the experiment was rigged, what would really happen is..."
Also,
Please read the 79-page thread linked above. And all the other aeroplane threads.
Also,
Please read the 79-page thread linked above. And all the other aeroplane threads.
RobM77 said:
Planes are driven by pushing on the air, and this doesn't change whether on or off a conveyor belt. Take off speed is relative to the air, and the plane is powered by pushing on the air - what happens to the wheels is not of any great significance. The only thing that's different is that the plane will have a force on it slowing it down slightly due to the friction of the wheels and the conveyor belt pulling backwards. As I said above, most planes would shrug this off and continue to power forwards up to take off speed with the wheels spinning like crazy.
granted, but the plane will not be moving on a conveyer belt, so there will be no lift surelyKingRichard said:
thewave said:
KingRichard said:
GTIR said:
Mind you, I only watched it for Kari.
Look at the size of that vibrator! it's even got a mains wire instead of double A's!
Shame she is a nerd dressed up in a babes skin.
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