JCC Ender Sigh says: Test your brainfulness!

OK, JCC, show me the smrts!

Imagine a 747 is sitting on a conveyor belt the width and length of a runway.

The conveyor belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction.

Can the plane take off? Why/why not?

If you get it right, I'll respect you a little more than I do now.

Which I get it, isn't much of a prize.

Unless I actually do respect you. In which case it is.

 

Why would anyone build such a conveyor belt?

 

Shut up Wocky.

 

Is there alcohol served on this 747?

 

Trick question. You never said whether or not the proper rituals had been performed to propitiate the sky god Jupiter.

 

Which airline operates the 747?

 

I'm not sure why these digits have wheels, nor why I should expect therefore expect a 2-manifold to fly.

 

Not Air Asia.

 

That sounds like a smart remark, but it's actually quite pertinent.

 

Yes

 

What's the weather like? Is the airport being hit by a typhoon?

 

I just liked everyone's reply in the hopes of gaining respect without having to answer the question.

 

That doesn't gain respect. It lowers self respect

 

So if there was a conveyor belt that is designed to produce respect at the same speed as my self respect is lowered, can I take off?

 

Seriously though Even, we know Wocky's going to ask all these questions when he shows up. And, unlike you, he'll be earnestly wrestling with them.

I'm not sure if "you're ruining it for everyone!" is accurate, but in the absence of a better phrase, that. It'll be better when Wocky asks, anyway.

 

Regardless of how the conveyor belt has been designed, has it been built by the public sector, or the private sector?

 

747 wheels aren't powered or connected to a drive mechanism. Initially I though that the forward propulsion created by the 747's jet engines will accelerate the aircraft to take-off speed regardless of whether the wheels below are spinning on tarmac, or are not spinning due to their rotation being matched and nulled by a convoluted conveyor belt mechanism.

But now, I'm thinking that if the conveyer moves back 1 cm for every 1 cm the plane tries to move forward, the plane is effectively stationary, and will not get any airflow over the wings to cause lift, and will be stuck on the runway/conveyor belt combo.

If only we had a physicist here to come and yell at everyone..

 

The plane can take off because it's my imagination; it could also lay eggs and talk if I wanted it to.

 

I'd have thought the reaction of the jet engines aren't acting on the same plane as the conveyor belt's application of force. The engine's reaction pours out the back of the engine, its action pushes the plane's mass forward. Matching the speed of the wheels doesn't matter, you have to provide enough force to counter the forward momentum of the aircraft, don't you?

 

It could take off because the propellers move the plane forward, not the wheels. Forward movement combined with the wings passing through the air would create lift. With enough lift, the plane could take off.

 

Except that as the plane moves forward the treadmill pushes it back; there is no forward movement.

 

No, it'll crash into pedestal in front that holds all the electronics.