Please help solve our stalemate

[HidingInTheCellar]

Hi All,

Long time lurker with a vein hope you can help my situation.

My better half and I have been having a futile argument for the last few weeks and neither of us are shifting on our stand point.

Things have gotten so desperate that we have taken to such childish endeavours such as withholding sexual rights, hiding the toilet rolls and removing the fuses from all the electrical appliances in order to get the other to concede.

The argument is basically this;

If an aeroplane was using a conveyor belt as a runway and the conveyor was moving in the opposite direction to the planes direction of travel, would the plane take off?

I say it will but my partner says it won't.

Please please please please help. I'm dying for some nookie!

Flisspaps I agree, and it would most likely be a collapsable pushchair constructed of blue and white striped meshing.

Really worth with holding sex?

Next up: Is glass a liquid?

well really who gives a f**k?

OP - you just need to have a big drink and chill out , man. Hiding the toilet rolls?

Or at what number of decimal places should 0.9999999 be taken to mean 1.

you two don't deserve the find out the answer

Most aeroplanes on ships are only different inasmuch that they've got a tailhook at the back and their front undercarriage is a lot stronger than for land-based aircraft. They use steam-powered catapults to help get the aircraft up to flying speed in a short distance.

Very few aeroplanes can take off vertically - the Harrier is one and the upcoming F35 is another. Even then, and particularly once they're loaded with fuel and weapons, it's very unlikely that they'll actually bother taking vertically as it's very inefficent. They use ramps at the end of the runways instead.

Why don't you get Brainiac to do an experiment to find out!

glass IS a liquid by the way - hence you can see in very old window panes he glass is thicker at the bottom where it slowly moves downwards

"By Bestb411pm Tue 13-Jul-10 12:44:30
Or at what number of decimal places should 0.9999999 be taken to mean 1. "

depends what you're using it for!

Here's another one:

If I win the lottery on Wednesday will I get a divorce or spend money on counselling?!!

What snorbs said.
Similarly, if the conveyor belt started and the plane was standing with engines off, the wheels would spin but the plane would stay where it was (relative to the ground).

Yes.

pp

It's a joke!!!

oh good - that sounded like things were dreadful

Glass is a semi-crystalline solid.

'How do aircraft take off from naval ships otherwise?' Catapults.

Hang on, glass is a liquid?! What parallel universe is this?!

haha..worth a try

mythbustersresults.com/episode97

Glass isn't a liquid.

Old windows are thicker at the bottom, because the way they used to make glass meant that one end was always thicker than the other. They put the thicker end at the bottom (sensibly).

The big obvious proof that glass isn't a liquid is that they've made long thin straight rods of glass, which then don't bend at all.

Hi I am a Materails scientist with a PhD in metallurgy (specifically in aeroplanes, I won't give you the specific title of my PhD or I could out myself).

So, glass is a semi-crystalline solid [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphous_solid glass] not a liquid. The reason glass in old panes is thicker at the bottom than top is because of manufacturing processes and not a phenonena known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_(deformation) creep, see 5 paragraphs down].

As for the plane, it doesn't take off. Planes fly because of uplift caused by a difference in the speed of air over the top and the bottom of the wing.
As the plane is stationary because the conveyor belt is exactly matching its speed, it is not moving to all intents and purposes, so no uplift and no flight.

May my geekiness assist you in lots of bonking!
Go to it girl!

Sorry about the links, here they are again:

glass

and

creep, see 5 paragraphs down

Hope the earth moves for you!