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Physics question (1 Viewer)

What do you think

  • Both aircraft will arrive at the same time

    Votes: 11 33.3%

  • One aircraft will arrive before the other.

    Votes: 22 66.7%
  • Total voters
    33
MTskibum

MTskibum

Footballguy
Two identical aircraft leave the same exact time from an airport on the equator and circumnavigate the earth. One goes east the other west. Now for simplicity we will take all winds and weather and fuel out of the scenario. Both aircraft will travel the same exact speed, same exact altitude same exact track (with the exception of where they pass at 180 degrees around the globe (they just miss each other at that point) .

Will one aircraft arrive back at the starting airport before the other, taking in the rotation of the earth as a possible factor?

 
MTskibum said:
Two identical aircraft leave the same exact time from an airport on the equator and circumnavigate the earth. One goes east the other west. Now for simplicity we will take all winds and weather and fuel out of the scenario. Both aircraft will travel the same exact speed, same exact altitude same exact track (with the exception of where they pass at 180 degrees around the globe (they just miss each other at that point) .

Will one aircraft arrive back at the starting airport before the other, taking in the rotation of the earth as a possible factor?
Click to expand...
Non-shtick: Defining "speed" is the crucial question, since aircraft speed can be expressed as either "air speed" or "ground speed".  And whether taking "winds and weather" out of the scenario includes the earth's atmosphere 

 
heckmanm said:
Non-shtick: Defining "speed" is the crucial question, since aircraft speed can be expressed as either "air speed" or "ground speed".  And whether taking "winds and weather" out of the scenario includes the earth's atmosphere 
Click to expand...


It does not matter, the same answer is correct regardless of whether it is ground speed or air speed.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
If we remove wind (which anyone who has flown knows the jet stream makes flying east faster than flying west) than they would arrive at the same time....unless there is some stupid catch here since we are removing so many real-world elements. 

 
TheIronSheik said:
Doesn't the plane flying west have to cover less distance?  Asking for a dumb friend. 
Click to expand...
Yes, relative to the circumference of the globe.  But from that perspective one aircraft is also going faster than the other.  I think if you include rotation of the earth you also have to allow for the speeds being different, relative to another fixed third point perspective.

 
Ilov80s said:
If we remove wind (which anyone who has flown knows the jet stream makes flying east faster than flying west) than they would arrive at the same time....unless there is some stupid catch here since we are removing so many real-world elements. 
Click to expand...
I think you're the first person I've seen #### up then/than in that direction.

 
Ilov80s said:
Also as dumb as this problem is, we know that at 180 degrees around the Earth they pass each other so they are "tied" at the midpoint. What factor would cause one plane to gain a lead in the 2nd half of the trip?
Click to expand...
Yeah.   Seems like a BS question.   The one aircraft travelling east should travel faster, but since they are travelling the same speed (which I assume is relative to the earth's surface) it should all be the same. 

 
Are you taking geography into account? Wonder if having to climb over mountains might slow one side down. (If you left at 0,0 off Africa, would the plane going west slow down over Andes Mtns in South America?)

 
Pretty sure the atmosphere rotates with the earth.  (At least the part where planes fly.)

 
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Walking Boot said:
I mean, if we are supposed to ignore everything, then imagine two super-slow houseflies in tiny space suits that launch up in opposite directions from the Moon, with no atmosphere. Then just barely "fly" forward at almost zero speed (but, in reality, pretty much just hover in place . The moon is going to rotate under one of them and come around and that one will get "back" to the starting point faster. 
Click to expand...
Pretty sure tiny space suits are impossible.  Nice try, maroon.

 
Walking Boot said:
I mean, if we are supposed to ignore everything, then imagine two super-slow houseflies in tiny space suits that launch up in opposite directions from the Moon, with no atmosphere. Then just barely "fly" forward at almost zero speed (but, in reality, pretty much just hover in place . The moon is going to rotate under one of them and come around and that one will get "back" to the starting point faster. 
Click to expand...
Jump straight up in the air high enough to be off the ground for 1/2 second. Where do you land?

 
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