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- Joined
- Nov 4, 2005
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Think of a seaplane taking off into a strong current moving in the opposite direction. It will still lift off.
Not necessarily. Assume the water current was flowing at 100MPH. If the sea plane was taking off against the current it would have to attain a "waterspeed" of 101 mph just in order to get air flowing over the wings. The drag from the floats and the lack of power from the engine would never get the sea plane moving that fast thru the water. Add full power to the sea plane into a 100mph water current and the sea plane is going to do nothing but move backwards and never achieve any headwind airflow over the wings.
Jeez....no airflow = no fly
People are bickering over two different questions. <Sigh>.
If you think the question is "Could a plane on a treadmill accelerate?" then you might get a different answer than "If a treadmill held a plane stationary, would if fly?"
Remember this is a physics question, so theoretical frictionless bearings, etc. would usually apply in a PHY100 class. And therefore, you could create a treadmill that could hold a plane stationary.
Figure out what the givens are and try to answer the same question!
If the bearings were frictionless, then it would not matter how fast you ran the treadmill. The aircraft would remain stationary. But as soon as you applied a thrust vector to the aircraft it would move of it's own accord regardless of treadmill speed.
Peace.
Rekks