Brainteaser Options

[james]

Here's a question for you:

"A plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyer). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyer moves in the opposite direction. This conveyer has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyer to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the plane take off?"

A couple of links discussing it (and some funny rationalizations for peoples incorrect assumptions):
www.kottke.org/06/02/plane-conveyor-belt
www.straightdope.com/columns/060203.html

[Emily]

will you all LISTEN and STOP talking about the bloody wings and how the plane takes off, its irrelevant, the only argument we have here is how the plane is going to get up to speed. We all know how a plane has to take off and we're not saying its going to happen any other way.

Our argument is that the plane will move from the conveyer and wont stay in one place, the plane will either run off the end of the conveyer and on to the run way or the conveyer is really long and the plane moves along it. What they are saying is the plane will move along to conveyer not take off from stand still.