Paper Airplanes Question How does the design of

Paper Airplanes

Question – How does the design of the paper airplane wings influence how far it can fly?

Background Research There are many forces that act upon an airplane. Those forces are called thrust , lift , drag and gravity. Thrust is the force that makes the plane move forward. Drag is the force that causes resistance to thrust. The airplane needs more thrust than drag so the airplane can move forward. Lift is another force that causes air to go below the wings pushing harder than the air. Lastly, gravity is the force that pulls the airplane to earth. Paper airplanes have the same forces as real airplanes.

Resources • Alex Deahr -Guest Speaker • Bill Nye The Science Guy Video-Flight • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=FOm 1 v. Cx 5 EHE • Brainpop-flight https: //www. brainpop. com/technology/transportation/flight/rticl e-How • Read Works Do Airplanes Fly

Hypothesis – If the size of the wings effects how far the paper airplane will fly, then big wings will fly farther.

Procedures – Find the 3 airplane designs you would like to use. – Make your chosen paper airplane design. – Pick one person to throw the airplane. – Throw the first airplane, measure the distance it fly’s with a yard sick (record data). – Repeat step four three times for each airplane.

Data

Pictures

Graph Airplane Distance Flown (Yards) 12 Distance (Yards) 10 8 6 4 2 0 airplane 1 airplane 2 airplane 3 Paper Airplane Flights trial 1 trial 2 trial 3 average

Results & Interpretation Paper airplanes with different designs flew different distances. Airplane A flew 2 ¼ yards the first trial, 9 ½ yards the second trial and 12 ¾ yards the third trial. Airplane B flew 6 ¾ yards the first trial it flew. The second trial the airplane flew was the same as the first result. The third trial the airplane flew was 4 yards. Lastly, airplane C flew 3 ¾ yards it’s first trial. The second trial result was 2 ¼ yards. The final trial the airplane flew was 2 yards as the result.

Conclusion My hypothesis was, ” Does the design of the paper airplane wings influence how far it can fly. ’’ The experiment did support the hypothesis because there are different designs and sizes. Airplane A average flight was 11 yard. Airplane B flew 8 yards average. Finally airplane C flew the distance of 4 yards. Airplane A flew the farthest because it had more lift than weight. Airplane B was the second farthest because it did not have enough lift so it dived to the floor. Airplane C only flew 4 yards because it had more weight than lift so it could not go as far as airplane a.