Airplane On Conveyor Belt?

[webtim-1]

See what you guys think
Taken from another forum, this question was put forward and argued with incredible conviction from 5 angles or more, to reach either of two possible answers.
It's a pretty simple question but had some brilliant rows about all sorts of things going on to justify the answers.




Imagine a plane is sat on the beginning of a massive conveyor belt/travelator type arrangement, as wide and as long as a runway, and intends to take off. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels at any given time, moving in the opposite direction of rotation.
There is no wind.
Can the plane take off?

[moose]

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=101259

Yes it will take off

[pallidin]

A plane does not require wheels to provide for forward motion.
Perhaps a way to look at this is similar to your description:
Imagine a plane, without wheels, yet it's belly is on a sheet of slick ice. Will the plane move forward? Yes.
Perhaps some of the confusion is with respect that a car will NOT go forward in the same scenario you described. In a car's case, the wheels ARE providing the forward motion by virtue of being DIRECTLY COUPLED to the engine output. A plane DOES NOT have that set of circumstance.

[russ_watters]

Duplicate thread....locking.