hilarity ensues

A friend of mine, who knows I like brainteasers, pointed me to this post. It's really more of a physics problem than anything else. It's quite a good one.

But the real gems of the post are located in the comments section. You've got three sets of people. Those who think the plane will not take off and think everyone else is crazy. Those who think the plane won't take off but then believe it will and complain the question is poorly written. And those who think the plane will take off and are convinced that everyone else is crazy or are trollers trying to drive them crazy. Here's a few priceless quotes:

dino, once again I'm inclined to asked, why in the world would you assume that the plane is stationary? Why? Are you just pretending to assume this, without giving any explanation whatsoever, in order to make me go insane?

Having said that, if anyone brings up Hitler or the Nazis during this conversation, I'm throwing my monitor out the window. You have my word.

I gave up reading all the comments. Did anyone forward this to MYTHBUSTERS?

To the moron who posed this poorly worded question in the first place:

and finally

you people are crazy. all of you.

It's really a study in how people shut their minds down once they've come to a conclusion. No one is listening to anyone else. The same arguments are hurled repeatedly at one another and neither side hears what the other is trying to say or how one side (the wrong one) is missing a key piece of the puzzle. It's also striking that almost everyone who didn't get the problem correct initially but eventually see the right answer focus their blame on the question rather than their own reasoning. It's never anyone's own fault. It's the other idiots or the idiot who wrote the problem. It's one of the most entertaining exchanges I've read in ages.

The plane will take off by the way.