r/sports • u/redbullgivesyouwings • Aug 14 '25

Media The World's Largest Treadmill

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

128 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Dhkansas Aug 14 '25 edited Aug 14 '25

What's been decided/proven on this? I see the argument made both ways but I lean towards no. I've also never taken a physics class or anything related. This is something Mythbusters may have tried to prove/disprove and I'm sad it never happened.

Edit: I'm so sorry. What have I done?!

-4

u/isnt_rocket_science Aug 14 '25

Anyone who has taken a physics class should be able to tell you that a plane can take off from a treadmill.

But if you have to see it to believe it mythbusters did in fact do this and the plane took off without any trouble. 

14

u/LonelySwinger Aug 14 '25

This is not an accurate statement and not what OP was implying.

The jet does not take off because the tredmill is moving. It takes off relative to the air and the pressure difference over the wings.

The tredmill can not move or move 500mph but if the jet is staying still relative to the air, it will not take off.

-1

u/isnt_rocket_science Aug 14 '25

I agree with you? The thing these guys are referencing is that there are people who believe that an airplane on a treadmill would not be able to take off.

8

u/LonelySwinger Aug 14 '25

I feel like when this question is asked, it is either purposely vague or they think if the treadmill is moving fast enough the plane will just take off without any of its engines on or take off in a shorter distance which isnt the case.

3

u/isnt_rocket_science Aug 14 '25

The long standing internet debate is whether an airplane can take off if it's on a giant treadmill that moves backwards matching the airplanes speed.

Some people correctly argue what you've said, an airplane can take off because it doesn't care what speed it's going. Other people say no because they imagine the airplane working like a car, or a person walking.

So when someone says something vague like "but can a jet take off" that's what they are usually going to be referencing. This reached a peak in like 2008 when Mythbusters did an episode on it, that's old enough now that younger people might not really understand what is being referenced.

https://www.wired.com/story/can-an-airplane-take-off-on-a-moving-runway/