Physics problem asked by my teacher

BradT

Senior member
Jul 17, 2007
435
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Many of my professors have always posed a problem to leave us with as we leave our first day of classes. This time my physics teacher ask us if a plane would take off it it was on a very long conveyor belt. I am not sure if it was attached at the nose to something. In fact, I am not even sure if he wanted an answer. It was really just something to get us thinking in the way he wants us to be thinking. I am curious though. Would it takeoff?

pre-emptively locking what would otherwise turn into a nef-fest. -Anandtech Moderator DrPizza - also a physics teacher who asked this question in class the last 2 years while teaching free body diagrams.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
The wording of this question is usually deficient in some way, but this one REALLY takes the cake. There is no mention of the conveyor belt matching the plane's speed!
 

KillerCharlie

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2005
3,691
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But he said the belt was really long. The force on the plane from the wheels is independent of the wheel rotational speed.