Quote:
Originally Posted by cody
Nor would anyone need to. If the way I interpreted the question is the "correct" way, the plane will take off, sure, but it will have broken the constraints of the problem while rolling down the runway. So I guess my answer is sure, the plane will take off, but the wheel speed was greater than the belt speed of the conveyor.
The question doesn't define the terms so there are two answers. I really wish the question would have stipulated how the speed is measured so that only one answer would be correct.
|
I'm pretty sure that because the details regarding the operation of the treadmill's speed matching ability are missing due to the imprecise phrasing of the original question, you can make a pretty good guess that the author wasn't exactly being meticulous about how it was phrased. I guarantee the author's goal wasn't to make up a semantic conundrum in an attempt to see how many people would catch the paradox (i.e. it's not a trick question, which is what tons of people seem to imply when they state the plane's not "allowed" to move, therefor it doesn't take off).
So, really it's a straight forwards riddle to see if you understand the difference between the thrust of an airplane engine vs. the thrust of a car via its wheels. If it was meant to be more than that, don't you think it would have been worded very carefully to describe the speed matching feature of the treadmill?