[QUOTE=Sean Factotum]
They’re obviously not going to use a real airliner, right? Not only ins’t there a treadmill big enough, the FAA goes nuts whenever those guys try to get near a real plane (remember their cell-phone in an airplane episode?)
[/quote]
We keep telling you guys - that no cell phones thing is an FCC rule, not an FAA rule. Please, let’s be accurate which Federal agency is freaking out over a particular episode.
That’s probably why they used a manned, full scale ultralight for the final test.
And, to remind everyone, they myth does NOT specify a jet. Every version I’ve heard said “airplane” without reference to scale until several thousand words into the subsequent discussion/debate/flamefest.
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant]
Sweet Jesus I’m going to regret this…
I thought the deal was that the treadmill was stationary and the hypothetical aircraft was moving in relation to the treadmill, but not moving in relation to the outside world and the air.
[/QUOTE]
Why? Why did you go there? Don’t you love America?
I came to the conclusion the plane would take off by a different route. The plane flies because the propellers are shoving air over the wings, causing lift. Once a sufficient quantity of air is being shoved over the wings, the plane is going to rise, no matter what the plane’s speed relative to the ground.
[QUOTE=treis]
I am a little disappointed that they didn’t take it one step further. They should have had Jaime floor it and see how long he could keep the plane on the ground for. Probably not very long, but I bet you could measure it.
[/QUOTE]
My thoughts exactly. They promise to “replicate the circumstances, then duplicate the results,” but didn’t even try to follow through on this. (They should also put those half black, half white circles on the plane’s wheels for visualization of free-spinning wheels.) Considering the level of vitriol and confusion about this problem, though, I expect them to revisit it in some way.
[QUOTE=Evil Captor]
I came to the conclusion the plane would take off by a different route. The plane flies because the propellers are shoving air over the wings, causing lift. Once a sufficient quantity of air is being shoved over the wings, the plane is going to rise, no matter what the plane’s speed relative to the ground.
[/QUOTE]
That’s not how propellers work. A prop is a giant screw, pulling the airplane through the air. The air being shoved back over the wings is relatively insignificant and alone does not provide enough airflow to generate lift.
Jamie said once he saw the plane starting to move that he gunned it as hard as he could. It didn’t make any difference. That plane is going to take off, no matter what. The treadmill is totally irrelevant.
Mythbusters missed one of the most crucial aspects of the entire myth. The treadmill is supposed to be able to accelerate at an infinite rate so that, no matter how much forward force the propeller generates, the rearward force on the airplane’s axles cancels it.
[QUOTE=kelly5078]
I think they did a great job. I’m amazed that they managed to pull of the full-scale test; I thought the fabric was likely to billow and twist.
I can’t see any holes in their tests (aside from those in the fabric)
[/QUOTE]
Are you talking about the treadmill or Kari’s clothes?
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio]
Mythbusters missed one of the most crucial aspects of the entire myth. The treadmill is supposed to be able to accelerate at an infinite rate so that, no matter how much forward force the propeller generates, the rearward force on the airplane’s axles cancels it.
[/QUOTE]
When you make up impossible devices, scenarios, and materials in order to make a problem more complicated, you have strayed from the path of Reason. In penance, speak Newton’s Laws ten times. Go, and sin no more.
[QUOTE=brewha]
The tidbit from the Discovery website says that the Mythbusters take a crash course in learning to fly RC planes.
[/quote]
Quick, somebody alert the FBI!
I think if you put a helicopter on a turntable it would immediately burrow to the center of the earth, ending life as we know it. Thus, we can never test it. There are some things man was not meant to know.
OK, on the topic of the cockroaches, I have a nitpick. Sure they’ll survive, but Grant, Kari, and Tori didn’t check to see if they’ll reproduce. What if they survive, but are rendered sterile? Survival without reproduction is pointless.
[QUOTE=cochrane]
OK, on the topic of the cockroaches, I have a nitpick. Sure they’ll survive, but Grant, Kari, and Tori didn’t check to see if they’ll reproduce. What if they survive, but are rendered sterile? Survival without reproduction is pointless.
[/QUOTE]
I was thinking the same thing. Ideally, they should have attempted to see whether the surviving insects would have reproduced, especially since each of the species they selected can procreate abundantly in captivity.
Having said that, I think they did show that the statement “Only cockroaches would survive a nuclear blast” is at best, inaccurate. At the highest radation dose tested, it was the flour beetles that survived. At the lower doses, the German roaches and the fruit flies also survived, though their fecundity remained untested.
Dare I hope that they decided to keep these colonies alive, thereby determining if the survivors remained fertile? Perhaps they’re saving that for an upcoming show, though I seriously doubt it.
