you kids are retards.

 

It's "open to interpretation" because all our lives we think of treadmills as something that holds a person on top of it still. That is not the sole purpose of a treadmill or conveyor though, especially when its purpose is clearly defined in the riddle.

As a logical problem there is only one correct way to solve this. You have two speed variables: conveyor and plane. As variables, they have to be taken in relation to the same point/ frame of reference, and that object/ frame of reference cannot be one of the variables themselves. The fact that it "seems right" for the plane to be measured against the conveyor is a human flaw, plain and simple. At one point in human history it seemed right that the sun rotates around the earth. Or that the earth is flat. Or that human sacrifice makes the crops grow.

Anyways, plug this problem into a purely mathematical/logical machine, such as a computer, which doesn't have any biased pre-conceptions of what reality is and isn't, and the answer it's going to spit out is that the plane/car/runner/brick/skier/house has to be moving forward if the conveyor is to move backwards. That is what the riddle clearly states. We can't throw this fact out because it doesn't seem right.

 

Yeah, but I didn't say "car with wings and a jet engine". I just said "car with wings", meaning it's still using its wheels to propel itself. I'm just trying to explain that what matters is how the energy is put to use: through the wheels or through jet thrust.

 

I was thinking more in terms of a treadmill which can be

 

Gymkata, it doesn't matter. No matter what fandangled treadmill you can think up, the plane will be able to take off.

 

The deceiving thing here that I just grasped, is that it is not being implied that the treadmill will aid the plane in all of a sudden lifting off with extremely high acceleration into the air from a stand still.

To compare a car and plane side by side (which has kind of already been done):

Propulsion
Car: Wheels - Plane: Air Turbine Engines/Propeller

Propelled Against
Car: The Ground - Plane: The Air

Free Spinning Wheels?
Car: No - Plane: Yes

To Counter Motion
Car: Treadmill - Plane: Wind Tunnel

The countering force that is being offered by the treadmill does not oppose the actual cause of resistance to the aircraft, which is air. If the plane were placed in a wind tunnel with enough high speed wind, it is theoretically possible that a plane could float on the spot because you are now countering the actual propulsion with an appropriate opposite force.

As was stated, the treadmill is almost irrelevant here in answering this question.

 

Ok, thats settled. Lets all go join yoparts.com, with their hip name and costco style pricing.

 

This thread delivers.

 

So exactly how much yoparts stock did you buy?

 

yes! the thrust from the engine moves the plane forward, not the wheels rotating.