Episode 97: Airplane on a Conveyor Belt

The airplane myth was actually a very simple myth, and I’m really unsure as to why people would believe that wheel movement would stop the plane from taking off. What I must assume is that most people believe is that the wheels on a plane are actually powered; but that is untrue. The wheels on planes are simply a way to reduce friction between the plane and the runway, much like ball bearings, or even oil in an engine, though they do provide directional assistance to keep the plane from achieving a yaw like motion which planes routinely incur while in flight. The law of motion plays a large part in this myth as objects at rest tend to stay at rest, so even though the wheels were turning the plane was not moving in the direction of the treadmill very quickly, the part that it did move was caused by the friction from the wheels interacting with the landing gear. So when the plane used it engines to achieve take off it made its takeoff speed. Something that I did not see mentioned in the episode is that planes take off speed is really relative to the wind speed and not to groundspeed. That is why the plane could take off on a run way. If there was a 100 mile per hour head wind one a plane with a 90 mile per hour necessary take off speed the plane, if tied down, would literally be lifted off the ground and continually fly like a kite.

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