January 31, 2008
Will it Fly?
Few things have produced derision and nerdfury like the debate over the Airplane on a Conveyor Belt. Basically the premise is this,
“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?”
Deron touched upon it the first time around and after some misfires, Mythbusters finally aired the show where the myth was tested, and Kottke live blogged it. He includes a helpful link to a clear explanation from someone smart than you or I.
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