I give up on this one. I've never understood why such a simple physics question is so often misunderstood.

No, it wouldn't.

If the wheels were moving more quickly than the treadmill, then there is some other motive force being applied (say a propeller). The simple fact is that without sufficient airflow over the wings, teh wings aren't going to produce lift.

Of course, a plane's wing can produce sufficient lift for take-off if a gust of wind flows over it at the velocity for take-off.

Yes, I just watched it. You'll note that the plane was moving relative to the ground, which of course caused air to flow over the wings and produced the requisite lift.

And were its wheels spinning when it took off?

Yes, because it was moving relative to the ground.

Do you know why in that video the plane was moving forward relative to the ground?

I guess if the you could say if a plane is not moving forward relative to the ground then it cannot take off. But I thought the question was worded saying if the wheels were spinning at the same rate as the conveyor belt.

And you don't see a problem here?

Because it is not an accurate test of the theory, as I said earlier. If the plane's wheels are not locked and free to spin, the treadmill underneath the plane would simply spin the plane's wheels and the plane would not move forward at all. If the plane is not moving forward (that's how planes generate enough speed to move enough air over the wings to produce lift), the plane will not take-off.

Ahh, gotcha. That makes sense to me now.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're arguing (like everyone else apparently). Are you saying that a treadmill couldn't essentially "launch" the plane by moving in the same direction because the wheels would spin and the plane wouldn't move? That's a very different argument than the one I think everyone else is talking about - that a plane could take off under its own power while a treadmill was under it and moving in the opposite direction.

No, I don't, because the theoretical test and the one Mythbusters performed were not the same. In the case of the treadmill, the wheels are only spinning because the treadmill is moving underneath them. In the Mythbusters test, the plane is moving forward relative to the ground. So, of course the wheels are spinning, but they are spinning because the aircraft itself is moving, which wouldn't happen in the above scenario.

Thats what I thought we were arguing at first too.

I never do well in these popularity contests. :sulk:

And I failed physics. Badly. :sulk:

I didn't even know there was a question about his version, honestly.