Because everyone is getting mixed up in different premises. Its a poorly worded question, and poorly framed, so there is too much room for speculation and setting your own conditions. With all that room for interpretation, you can easily come to either conclusion depending on how you frame the original question.

If you don't understand why people don't "get it", you're failing to see that there are different ways of getting it.

 

I stand by my original posts.

I also fail to understand how the question can be framed in any way that does NOT lead to the plane being able to take off.

Unless the whole thing takes place in a vacuum...

 

I can't understand how anyone could think the plane could take off without lift which comes only from movement which can't happen because the conveyor keeps the plane from moving.

Now if it were a Harrier or a rocket I'd say yes.

 

Please tell me you didn't just say that.

Once again, conveyors counter the motion of wheel-driven vehicles.

Conveyor belt for a car = Wind tunnel for a plane.





Get it?


To keep something stationary, exactly counter the force, motion, etc that is being produced to neutralize the forward motion of the craft.

 

Yet again, another point.

Nobody is debating that the wheels of the plane will be rotating much faster on a conveyor than if the plane were on solid ground, but the motion of the wheels of the plane is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to how a plane flies.

 

WOW. Education fail. The plane will take off normally.

 

 

funny...i just saw the rerun of this on mythbusters last night lol

 

Because some people are framing the question with the engine providing enough thrust to only keep the plane from rolling backward, and some people are framing the question with the plane going to takeoff thrust, and wondering is the wheels matter at that point.

 

Not exactly. A wind tunnel blowing in the opposite direction as the plane's would actually make the plane take off sooner since you have more velocity over the plane's wings. A wind tunnel blowing in the same direction will prevent the plane from taking off, since the relative air speed over the wings would be zero, but the plane will still move...it will just roll along the ground.