enthalpy

enthalpy

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The truth shall set you free, but first it's going to piss you off

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Saturday, February 04, 2006

Posted 2/04/2006 11:11:00 AM by Douglas

The Straight Dope takes a look at the age-old "airplane on a treadmill" question. Long story short, the plane flies.

"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?"

This really made my brain hurt yesterday because I think the answer to the question as stated is very misleading. The short answer is that the treadmill can't keep the plane from moving, relative to an fixed observer (and surrounding air) when this madness starts. The airplane will fly, but it will fly off the end of the treadmill.

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