Quote:
Originally Posted by orange
Read that carefully. That's a motor-driven conveyor belt. It's not a free-spinning treadmill that matches the plane's wheel energy.*
Dan • Jan 30 2008 • 10:51PM
No Greg, the experiment is right, you are wrong. You confuse speed with force. The treadmill can move with an opposing speed to the plane, but it cannot apply an equal and opposing force, because wheel bearings transmit only a very small rolling friction. The question nowhere states that the treadmill counters the plane's thrust or keeps it stationary. It only that it moves in the opposite direction at the same speed.
*This may not be the original post that started this, but it's the assumption I layed out in #126.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orange
Read that carefully. That's a motor-driven conveyor belt. It's not a free-spinning treadmill that matches the plane's wheel speed.
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The conveyor belt is totally irrelevant compared to the dynamics of flight.
The plane's jets push
air in the opposite direction. The air that is pushed in the opposite direction of the plane is not affected by the ground. The only thing the tires do is hold the plane off the ground until a sufficient amount of air is pushed behind the plan to gain lift from the airflow over the shape of the wings.
A care pushes the ground in the opposite direction. Completely totally different.