Can someone fake a plane ride?

[pouyat777]

Hi everyone, I have a very unique question I thought can be answered by science!

 

I watched a movie called the Truman Show and in the movie he wants to go to Fiji and he is on a reality tv show that keeps him in this bubble. Now I was wondering if it is scientifically possible to fake a plane ride so he thinks he is going from that place he lives to Fiji. Or is it impossible to simulate it because you can look out the window and see everything and you can really notice where you are and stuff.

 

I would assume you would fly the plane above the clouds and while above in the clouds the set designers change the area up and then the plane comes back down and lands in the same place with a new set design. Does my assumption make any sense or does science bust this.

 

Basically I am asking because this movie is creepy! I just want to know if with our world in 2013 if we can do that because I haven't been on an airplane since i was a baby coming to Canada and now im 24 and want to go to Hawaii or something but I want to know if the plane is REALLY going there or am I being deceived... LOL sorry I get paranoid when I watch movies (paranoia can be a pain)

 

Thanks for reading!

Cheers.

[pwagen]

The problem in Truman Show is that he lived in a sealed dome. So either the dome is big enough for the plane to fly about inside, or they opened it up.

 

Another option is putting him in a grounded simulator, which rocks back and forth to simulate take-off and landing. But I would have to see it again to refresh my memory of what they say about the trip.

 

Looking out the windows can be solved with a simole "we're experiencing a lot of solar activity today, so the window curtains have been closed and locked for your protection". After all, growing up like he did seems to have made him naive enough to buy that.

 

Also, they're coming for you... *cue the theme from Jaws*

Edited April 4, 2013 by pwagen

[pouyat777]

I see thanks for your input. What if the windows weren't closed does that make it so you can visually see whats going on so that way you bust them if it was a trick.

 

Also how about this can this even be scientifically plausible If for instant they branched out because the income of the reality show was strong enough to craete multiple domes so you fly out of one dome into another dome which is somewhere lets say in Vegas. Basically making it so the ONLY way to really know if you are not in a dome is to go by feet or a car.

 

Sorry for the weird questions I just want to be proven wrong and put this stupid movie idea to rest knowing its not possible (already know the legal issues makes it not but just excluding that all the other aspects of it)

[CaptainPanic]

I think that to keep someone really clueless that he's living a lie in a dome, with current technology, would be ether really costly, or just impossible. Why not just convince someone that home is nice, and the outside world is a big bad place? Then you can do the same trick, without building that dome.

 

But I think it is very possible to fake the plane ride itself.

I'd be more worried about the rest of the trip... But looking at myself, I love traveling way too much, and I doubt a director could come up with all the stuff I experienced during my travels. And my trip was a bit too random at times to have the camera's in place in time

[Ophiolite]

But looking at myself, I love traveling way too much, and I doubt a director could come up with all the stuff I experienced during my travels. And my trip was a bit too random at times to have the camera's in place in time

We mount the cameras in insects, or penguins. We just loved the problem you had with the pasta.

[swansont]

Somehow you'd have to fake the acceleration at takeoff and landing. The ride itself is inertial, so you can't tell you're moving. The visual cues once aboard could be faked, but I wonder about the part about going to the airport and getting on the plane. To me that's one of the hard parts.

[pouyat777]

So what would be the easiest way to catch it if its fake or real like what is the biggest scientific way of busting the illusion. Just look out the window as it travels into the sky? Or go sit with the flyer and see if he turns the wheel in mid air to see if he is going back to where he started from doing a U-Turn.

[derek w]

So what would be the easiest way to catch it if its fake or real like what is the biggest scientific way of busting the illusion. Just look out the window as it travels into the sky? Or go sit with the flyer and see if he turns the wheel in mid air to see if he is going back to where he started from doing a U-Turn.

Hang a pendulum from the ceiling.

[CaptainPanic]

A pendulum alone will just show you have an acceleration... in a flight simulator (the expensive ones that pilots train on), they just tilt the whole cabin to imitate this same effect. However, on a plane, you have normal gravity, and the acceleration. The resulting acceleration you experience is - as an absolute quantity - larger than gravity. On a flight simulator, where they merely tilt the cabin, the resulting total acceleration is still just exactly that of gravity.

 

Add a force meter to the pendulum, and see the direction as well as how much the force by acceleration and gravity increases, and you can tell the difference.

We mount the cameras in insects, or penguins. We just loved the problem you had with the pasta.

Heh,

Yeah, sorry about that. That wasn't in the script.

[derek w]

If the pendulum was swinging and the aircraft changes direction then the aircraft would revolve around the pendulum.

 

The aircraft would have to change direction just to taxi on to the runway.

Edited April 4, 2013 by derek w

[dimreepr]

You would only take a pendulum/force meter if you suspected you were being duped otherwise it would be relatively easy to fake the plane ride itself, without the need to immerge in a different airport (though given the relative uniformity of a lot of airport interiors not unworkable unless you go outside). Certainly within the budget of the BBC, providing it is entertaining enough. The unsuspecting dupe would turn up at an airport and be ushered into a plane like environment attached to a simulator, the night time graphics would be relatively easy to simulate to someone unsuspecting. The only foreseeable problem is if the dupe is a frequent flyer that could tell the difference between simulated acceleration and the real stuff; most of us probably couldn’t. As to creating a Truman type simulation indoors ok, outside no way.