Results tagged “treadmill” from theInput.net

If you're tuned into the geeky side of the blogging world, you're no doubt familiar with the obsession over the "plane on a treadmill" problem:

Imagine a plane is sitting on a massive conveyor belt, as wide and as long as a runway. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction. Can the plane take off?

The problem has divided physicists, pilots, and bloggers alike, inspiring this Joy of Tech comic that sums up the fervour nicely.

Well... Mythbusters to the rescue! In an episode airing in December, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman will finally lay this problem to rest:

"... We just finished one that has confounded us our entire careers.''

"We put the plane on a quarter-mile conveyor belt and tested it out,'' says Savage about the experiment using a pilot and his Ultralight plane. ``I won't tell you what the outcome was, but the pilot and his entire flight club got it wrong.''

I'm so stoked for this episode. The Physics geek in me can't wait.