Plane on a conveyor revisited Options

[james]

Dragging up the past a bit - TV show Mythbusters ran it's much anticipated episode with a practical experiment version of this question on it a couple of nights ago over in the US.

I don't know when it will come on over here but for the curious Kottke liveblogged it and also links to another good explanation from a guy with a Sc.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering (whatever that is).

And for the hard of attention and understanding - yes of course it takes off.

[james]

Imagine you are holding a matchbox car (the kind with the spinny wheels which just go around - not the kind with the wind up 'motor' in it) on a treadmill - by the logic you have outlined above you would not be able to push the car along the treadmill (and by push I mean holding on to it and moving your hand and therefore the model forward). But obviously you could do that - now substitute the plane for the car and the engine power for your arm and voila!

Even if the treadmill was going at a gazzillion miles an hour you could hold the car on it (the unpowered wheels would just rotate at the same speed as the treadmill). When you push it forward they would rotate at the speed of the treadmill plus the forward speed you are applying - they are for all intents and purposes irrelevant.