Calling all clever people :) What do you make of this?

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Infected? Not really. I'd just really like to know who that moron was that put a *******' conveyor belt on the runway!

And obviously who the moron was that wrote the question in the first place. Talk about major interpretaion issues. Any answer is really correct, as far as I'm concerned.

Rune
 
Pah, you don't have to tell me about the colourful Swedish use of language, for years I wandered round with a tour t-shirt from a Swedish band I worked with that suggested something quite improbable!

Anyhow...ducks...

After much thought, and a Chinese takeaway, I decided the question was meaningless if you look at it etymologically, as "swimming" is the end result, and "paddling" the process to achieve it. So there.

Oh, and by the way, this book might help show why we can never really work out the plane problem. 😉
 
Chris,

In answer to your "which way does the belt spin" question. The belt we are told has no internal friction and no method of powering itself. We know that the wheel assembly has very little friction. The wheel to belt junction is cause for much higher friction than either of the above and so we can reasonably replace that junction with a couple of cogs meshed together. If the wheel turns clockwise then the belt is forced to move counter-clockwise and vice versa.
 
AudioFreak said:
Chris,

In answer to your "which way does the belt spin" question. The belt we are told has no internal friction and no method of powering itself. We know that the wheel assembly has very little friction. The wheel to belt junction is cause for much higher friction than either of the above and so we can reasonably replace that junction with a couple of cogs meshed together. If the wheel turns clockwise then the belt is forced to move counter-clockwise and vice versa.


I beleive I said that about a zillion posts back.

Even though the plane hasn't taken off, this thread sure has.

Max
 
Hi Dan,
The original question was:
Imagine a plane is sat on the beginning of a massive conveyor belt/travelator type arrangement, as wide and as long as a runway, and intends to take off. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels at any given time, moving in the opposite direction of rotation.

And you said:
The belt we are told has no internal friction and no method of powering itself.

I don't see this. I take it to mean the belt has a super servo system or it will still do as I suggested. The belt being frictionless and the wheel having friction means the wheels do not rotate and the belt moves when the plane pushes along. Plane takes off.

Please correct me if I'm wrong here. Nowhere is the belt said to be not powered. (I'm ducking)

-Chris
 
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