Test Flight with Paper Airplanes Amount
of Time Students will create a paper airplane and use the scientific method to determine the best way to keep it in the air longer. There are four forces that act on an airplane in flight: lift, gravity, thrust, and drag. In order for a plane to fly, lift and thrust must work against gravity and drag. Flight is also affected by principles of air such as pressure and temperature. When flying paper airplanes, stability is also a factor. There are three main types of stability: pitch, directional and roll. To have a plane with stable pitch, your need to have the weight toward the front. Directional stability is what keeps the plane flying straight. Having a tail or fins at the back of the plane helps with this. Roll stability keeps the plane's wings level. A plane without roll stability will begin to circle. To give your plane roll stability, make sure that the wings form a slight Y shape.
1. Create paper airplane using design of choice. 2. Throw the plane ten times and record the number of seconds the plane stays in the air. 3. Find the average time aloft for the control plane. 4. Decide on a manipulated (independent) variable. For example; a different weight or type of paper (manila file folders work well), add paper clip(s) to the front, middle or back of the plane, use a hole punch to put a hole in the wing, bend a wing, or both wings differently, etc. Be sure to only change ONE variable. 5. Throw the new airplane ten times in the same manner as the control and record the data. 6. Find the average time aloft for the modified plane. 7. Depending on how much time you want to devote to this activity, the student may make a different modification and try again, or go ahead with graphing the results. 8. Create a bar graph for the results. Place the manipulated variables (s) along the x(horitzontal) axis. Decide on a range for the responding variable and mark the y (vertical) axis as needed. Draw the bars to the average height for each manipulated variable. (If only one variable was tested, graph all ten trials.) Label the x and y axis, and use those labels to create a title for the graph. NOTE: Micosoft Excel or a similar program can be used to input data and create graph. Resources for Paper Airplane Designs http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Sites/ Go to the Kids Corner, Aeronautics Camp and then Model Shop to get paper airplane designs. http://teacher.scholastic.com/ilp/index.asp?SubjectID=4&SubheadID=10&TopicID=124 "Kids Paper Airplane Book", by Blackburn and Lammers, Workman Publishing Company, New York, NY, 1996. See student data collection worksheet Extensions There are other ways to make airplanes the students can test. Styrofoam meat trays can be used, as well as kits like the Delta Dart. These can all be modified based on the principles of flight. Other outcomes can also be tested. Instead of testing for longest time in the air, students can test for the most distance flown. In addition, a wire coat hangar an be opened up to crate a target for the plane to fly through allowing the students to test for the plane that flies in the straightest path.
|
In
this activity, students will first create a model paper
airplane that will serve as the control. Each student
will conduct ten trials with the control plane and