Something amazing to tell you concerning physics and motion

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by orange

Why? What relevance has that got?

The problem states that the speed of the treadmill (x) should be set to the speed of the wheels (y).

So that gives the equation x = y.

The speed of the wheels is

y = x + z

where z is the speed of the plane. The speed of the plane is determined by the result of its time history of acceleration. Acceleration is determined by a force balance on the plane. The forces are the thrust of the jets, air resistance and bearing resistance. The force of the thrust is far greater than the other two, so the plane will move forward which makes z positive, let's say 5.

substituting

x = x + 5.

You simply cannot make the treadmill speed and wheel speed the same, since speeding up the treadmill will make the wheels go faster requiring more speed up and so on and so on.