Welcome, XKCD readers!

To all of you that got here from the forums at fabulous xkcd.com: welcome. And yet, many of you make me despair, as I did on that fateful January 31 day. Even as you read the main argument below, the debate is raging anew at the forum of your favorite webcomic. Read the latest comments for the explanation and the debate even continues there! Some of you still don't get it. I die a little inside every time I hear someone say that the plane will not take off, and cite their experience as a "commercial airline pilot", or boast their thousands of hours of flight time, as if some desperate appeal to authority will make up for a complete lack of understanding of basic physics. So I implore you, please - if you read the entire article below, and still think the plane doesn't take off, read it again. And if you still think it doesn't take off, read it again, only make sure you read it this time. We all know you didn't pay attention in physics class, but hopefully you at least stayed awake for a tiny portion of reading comprehension. Read it again, and again, and read the comments, and the thousands of other websites that explain why the plane takes off, and if you still think it doesn't, then please stop clogging the tubes of the internets with mindless drivel. Try one last video that might convince you otherwise instead. Happy flying.