the simple flaw in the experiment was that the conveyor belt did not match the speed of the plane in the opposite direction. Conveyor belt was too slow, it did not match the planes acceleration!
None of this matters because the engine powers the propeller and not the wheels. If it was a car then yes - the forward momentum is from the wheels being powered by the engine but this is a plane - the wheels don't matter, it will still move forward becuase the propeller cause the forward movement - it doesn't matter what the plan is siiting on. That's why planes can take off from water with pontoons as landing gear, they are not powered, just move with the plan when the engine goes.
Both the belt and the plane were going at 25 mph. The experiment goes to show that the plane continues to move forward regardless of the wheel and the conveyor belt. There is a major difference between a person running on a treadmill and a plane on a conveyor belt. A. Person on treadmill The forward force is generated from the back leg pushing forward. The forward force is negated by the treadmill going the opposite direction, so the rest of your body remains stationary. B. Plane on a conveyor belt The forward force is generated from the propeller engine. The forward force remains relatively unchanged because the conveyor belt does not impede the engine from generating the force. All the conveyor belt does is make the wheels spin twice as fast in order to match the plane's speed. The only thing that may affect the speed of the plane is the added friction due to the increased forward force.
so if the belt went 50mph, would the plane still move forward? Would the plane take off? They shoulda tested this....
I would imagine so. The wheels would be rotating to match 75 mph speed assuming the propeller is making it go 25 mph forward. I don't see why they have to test it when they've done the 25 mph test.
Why? They already proved the scientific facts behind the propulsion of the plane. Do they need to test it for 30 mph? 50? 75? Would they have to test every conceivable speed before some would give up the argument?
If the conveyor belt had gone 75 mph, or 100 mph, the plane would have still taken off with no problem. The only conveyor belt speed that would be relevant would be the limit on the speed the airplane's wheels could spin before failure, which I suspect is well over 200 mph.
This is hilarious...despite overwhelming evidence, some people are still reluctant to admit the truth, even going so far as to change the myth itself to fit into their argument. How difficult is this to understand? First off the myth is: A PLANE WILL NOT TAKE OFF ON A CONVEYOR BELT. It's as simple as that. Some of ya'll are complicating this so much. Now I will admit that the mythbusters may not always get it right...their baserunning (sliding vs. standing) myth was flat out wrong from the getgo. Others, like the sword cutting myth for example, I've questioned the validity of the results. But for this myth, the guys put a plane on a conveyor, the conveyor matched the speed of the plane, and the plane flew. They tested the myth exactly as stated and they busted it. I don't know how much more overwhelming the evidence can be cause I saw that plane take off clear as day. To reinforce their point, they even show an rc car on the treadmill, and it was completely stationary...if that doesn't clear it up then I don't know what will. And I for one enjoyed the heck out of the episode (or at least that segment). Doesn't matter that I was 95% sure beforehand what would happen...to see that plane take off the conveyor was pretty cool.
FWIW, Jamie said that when he saw the plane going, he gunned his truck. They knew what was going to happen and although they didn't specify how much he got up to, I think Jamie and the tarp/treadmill did end up going faster than 25 MPH, faster than the top ground speed of the plane. In the first small scale test, they matched the speed of the plane to the speed of the treadmill (11.3 MPH) and it still moved forward. In the 2nd test, they had the cart pulling the treadmill going a little faster and the plane took off. They even had the "science content" section and explained exactly why a treadmill has no effect on how a plane moves forward complete and demonstrated it clearly with the RC car on the treadmill. If a car is on a treadmill, the treadmill acts directly on the thing that is moving the car forward (the wheels being powered by the engine) and can negate forward motion. But an airplane moves forward by its propellers pulling the plane through the air. The wheels aren't connected to the engine in any way. So the treadmill doesn't interact with what moves the plane forward. It can't negate forward motion if it doesn't even interact with the mechanism that moves the plane forward. If anybody watched that episode (with demonstrations and scientific explanations) and still doesn't get it, you're hopeless.
For a thread that made it so many pages and had so many different posters, it's pretty weak that they are all gone now that the scenario has been played out. As was said earlier, it doesn't matter that they did not get over 25 mph. They proved in theory the plane would take off.
Anyone checked out the forums on discovery's site? The Airplane episode thread has 130+ pages and going; 90% of the posts are by people who claim the guys didn't test the myth right and who cannot or will not grasp the concept that the plane and the wheels work independently of one another. It's pretty funny stuff....and I only looked at the first page!
I guess maybe WWR wasn't smart enough to remember how to log in and view this thread. Yeah, I went there.
For those who think the plane won't take-off, imagine this scenario: You have a grocery store conveyor belt moving at 10mph. You are holding a toy car (matchbox car with free spinning wheels) on the conveyor belt. You walk forward at 1mph. Does the car move on the conveyor belt?
All any of this proves is that almost no one truly understands the question. But knowledge of the answer and knowledge of the question are mutually exclusive - they cancel each other out - if anyone were to actually possess knowledge of both the question and the answer it would cause the instant annihilation of the entire universe. The answer is '42', but it will take several hundred million years in order to properly calculate the question.
K-mart was a decent player at his best. He is pretty bad now and he is vastly overpaid. None of that bother me. What irritates me is this guy thumbing his chest every time he throws down a dunk after a great pass from Kidd or one of his other teammate. He acted as if he did something special. So comical.
