Airplane on a Conveyor Belt. ARGH!
Y’know, surprisingly, I just got around to catching this. Ok, I just caught part 2 on the youtubes (below). This is an unspeakably annoying busting (but I will speak on it anyway). The spirit of the myth is that if the plane isn’t moving but the engines going will it take off. This just proves that because a plane’s motive power isn’t coming from the wheels having the ground move beneath the wheels doesn’t matter - the wheels are there to reduce friction (since the force comes from the propeller) so the conveyor belt just makes the wheels spin faster without slowing down the plane appreciably. Duh. Who cares? If the spirit of the myth was adhered to, the plane wouldn’t have been moving, no air would go over the wings and no lift generated. Duh. Duh. DUH. Argh.
I’m just saying.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I think the point is that the conveyor belt can’t create the presumed conditions of the test. The “spirit of the myth” is, in fact, not physically possible. It’s an engineering question that can’t escape some basic mechanics.
Let’s chain a plane to a big enough rock to defeat the thrust provided by the engine, and well, now we’re talking.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
That is more or less the notion I had for the test. It just underscores the stupidity of the myth. I mean it was just a lame test and if they couldn’t do it right they should have done something else. Know? Sigh.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
After years of this show they are probably running out of testable ones.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:52 am
they did it as right as they could. i don’t think that ther is a spirit of the myth… the first time I heard this all I could think was that the conveyer wouldn’t move until the plane moved, but the problem said that the conveyor would keep the plane still. That can’t happen! So one the plane moved, the conbeyor would have to instantly snap to moving at an infinite speed (or however fast it would be before the bearings on the wheels burnt out.)
Kirk is right: this is either a question about a guy on rollerskates on a treadmill pulling on a rope OR a question about a plane tied to a rock. but it can’t be both. The conveyor belt is just someone who doesn’t understand how the physical world works.
February 7th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Oh, there’s a spirit of the myth alright. If the spirit of the myth was what they tested the myth would have been “If you put a plane on a conveyor belt, would it go forward?” Although, your rollerskate one’s a good way of putting it. I’m just saying… it’s a stupid myth to bust, what they did.
Maybe Poyla’s right - they’re running out of myths.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:22 am
But if you put a plane on an escalator, could it still get to the TCBY on the second floor?
February 7th, 2008 at 10:27 am
It depends…do you consider the TCBY as part of the food court? Or an autonomous unit for mid-mall snacking? I’m pretty sure it could get to a big enough food court…