Plane on a Treadmill Rerun on Mythbusters

EnRoute said:
Am I to understand that this was tested and the plane actually lifted off?

I was always under the impression that it actually took increased airflow velocity over the wing to provide the lift, which would dictate the necessity for forward motion or one hell of a wind gust. How is this airfoil moving forward relative to the ambient air on a treadmill? I would swear that the only thing happening with this aircraft are the wheels spinning.

What gives? I am stumped if this thing actually got off the treadmill. :confused:
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Yes, the plane actually flew.

What you're missing is that the engine drives the prop. The wheels are irrelevant.

What happens with the wheels is that they simply spin twice as fast as they would if they were on a stationary surface. The prop pulls the plan forward, and it takes off.

Think of it this way. You know how you can get a plane to take off on skis? There's nothing pushing the skis, right? But the plane moves, right?

That's because the prop pulls the plane forward and it has nothing to do with the surface.
 
EnRoute said:
I think this whole experiment has been misrepresented. Plane and simply, for this airplane to fly it needs to be accelerated (however) into the relative wind. Period. An airplane can not sit motionless with exception of the spinning wheels, on a treadmill and become air born. No way, no how.

Now if the airplane is on a very very long treadmill and accelerated as in the above video, then sure, it would be just like any other takeoff with the exception of the wheels spinning much faster prior to liftoff.
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Do yourself a favor and do a search for "plane treadmill" threads.

You will find at least 3, maybe 4 multiple page threads about the subject.

Yes. The plane will fly.
 
EnRoute said:
I think this whole experiment has been misrepresented. Plane and simply, for this airplane to fly it needs to be accelerated (however) into the relative wind. Period. An airplane can not sit motionless with exception of the spinning wheels, on a treadmill and become air born. No way, no how.

Now if the airplane is on a very very long treadmill and accelerated as in the above video, then sure, it would be just like any other takeoff with the exception of the wheels spinning much faster prior to liftoff.
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You created an incorrect mental picture of what would happen by adding things to the riddle which are not part of it. The riddle didn't say the treadmill would prevent forward motion, you just assume the riddle means that because that's how a car on a treadmill would work.

That's what makes it a good riddle though :p It causes people to make assumptions which are incorrect. If every riddle included a 4 paragraph explanation, engineering diagrams, and physics books, they wouldn't be much fun. Although this particular riddle stopped being fun about a year ago...
 
This is my point. The wheels are totally irrelevant.

I am assuming the treadmill is not miles long and that the airplane is held stationary, relative to the treadmill, as this is what a treadmill is for, and the plane does not fly. It needs to have sufficient forward motion to the ambient air.
 
There are two kinds of dissent out there on this.

The first group misinterprets the myth and assumes the point of the myth is that the airplane is being held stationary (even if that's not explicitly stated).

The second group actually thinks and argues the wheels are relevant.

Be glad you fell in the first category, it's much easier to "cure" :p
 
And the third group, who thinks the treadmill is very long, and that the plane actually moves forward on the treadmill rather than being held still (by ropes or whatever), to prevent it moving off the treadmill.

:panic:
 
NickH said:
And the third group, who thinks the treadmill is very long, and that the plane actually moves forward on the treadmill rather than being held still (by ropes or whatever), to prevent it moving off the treadmill.

:panic:
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I wouldn't consider the proven correct answer to be a dissenting opinion :p
 
It's an opinion on interpretation of the question, rather than the answer, which we all know.

The first and third groups, in my opinion, both interpret the question in equally valid ways, and come to equally valid answers, based on their different interpretations, and it's here that most of the argument occurs.

For the record, I fall into the third and more popular group, and said fly, but I actually listened to the first group, and respect their perspective, rather than immediately assuming they're group 2'ers, and trying to lecture them about airspeed.
 
All I gotta say is that every time we have this "debate" as adults, there's a 8 year old kid in New Delhi that's flabbergasted that the biggest, baddest, most technological country on Earth has adults that can't quite crack the code.
 
What I wanna know is...

... flight or no- are there


SNAKES ON THE PLANE?


... and does that matter?

Because in the movie's case, it definitely never really took off.

:yup::nana2::p:D:rolleyes:
 
tonyw said:
I think the Mythbusters guys said it best.

For some reason people just can't get their head around the idea that the plane's engine doesn't send power to the wheels, it sends power to the propeller.

What also surprises me is that the pilot who was flying the plane didn't think the plane would move. Very disappointing, but not surprising given some of the responses on this board.

And I'm also surprised that people are still arguing about it. It's still being hotly "debated" on the Mythbusters site!

Uh, hello, they put a plane on a treadmill and the plane took off. What more do you want?
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Are you serious!?
 
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