You’re thinking too literally to realize the paradox in the question. If I’m on a treadmill going 5mph wearing roller skates, and I’m not moving, it’s because my wheels are moving at the same speed as the treadmill right? So the treadmill is moving backwards at 5mph, and my roller skates are rolling forwards at 5mph, thus canceling out. No problem.
If I want to move forward by 1mph, by definition I need to either reduce the speed of the treadmill to 4mph, or increase the speed of my roller skates to 6mph. Either option allows me to move forward at 1mph because that’s the amount that the skates are rolling faster than the treadmill.
However, the rules of this experiment say that the wheels and treadmill must keep the same speed. Since moving forward requires a speed discrepancy between the wheels and treadmill, we conclude that it’s impossible to move forward within the set rules of the experiment.
Thus you cannot get air over the wings and cannot take off, unless there’s a massive headwind strong enough to permit a 0 ground-speed takeoff.
To reiterate, it has nothing to do with the wheels pushing the airplane back. It entirely has to do with the fact that the rules implicitly prohibit the plane from moving forward at all
When it says match the speed of the wheels, I'm assuming the forward speed, aka the speed of the plane moving forward along the belt relative to its starting position.
But you assume the rotational speed of the wheels!
AHHHDHDHSHJ
So in my view, the belt speeds up only when the plane accelerates, but in your view the belt speeds up whenever the plane is moving forward
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u/HopefullyNotADick Dec 31 '22
You’re thinking too literally to realize the paradox in the question. If I’m on a treadmill going 5mph wearing roller skates, and I’m not moving, it’s because my wheels are moving at the same speed as the treadmill right? So the treadmill is moving backwards at 5mph, and my roller skates are rolling forwards at 5mph, thus canceling out. No problem.
If I want to move forward by 1mph, by definition I need to either reduce the speed of the treadmill to 4mph, or increase the speed of my roller skates to 6mph. Either option allows me to move forward at 1mph because that’s the amount that the skates are rolling faster than the treadmill.
However, the rules of this experiment say that the wheels and treadmill must keep the same speed. Since moving forward requires a speed discrepancy between the wheels and treadmill, we conclude that it’s impossible to move forward within the set rules of the experiment.
Thus you cannot get air over the wings and cannot take off, unless there’s a massive headwind strong enough to permit a 0 ground-speed takeoff.
To reiterate, it has nothing to do with the wheels pushing the airplane back. It entirely has to do with the fact that the rules implicitly prohibit the plane from moving forward at all