I have loved the newspaper and web column The Straight Dope for many years. Cecil Adams (and his dedicated staff) tell it like it is on almost any sort of question, often with just the right sarcastic tone when questioners ask for it (I think some people write in hopes of being insulted by Cecil - or maybe they really are that dumb).Today's Straight Dope email revisits a physics problem that circulates on the web as a trick question. It's the case of an airplane taking off on a conveyer belt runway. Very nice discussion of this here, now including the case of the continuously accelerating conveyer belt runway (very few of these in use up to now). As usual, Newton wins, with an assist from Cecil Adams.
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