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Things That Fly: The Paper Airplanes!! 

Using our understanding of how things fly and some of the scientific concepts behind the flight, we were tasked with creating an experiment that tested three different types of paper airplanes and measuring how far they traveled. This requires making a plane that takes into account weight and factors that will hinder flight. There is also consideration as to what needs to remain controlled so as to not skew the data.  

There are a few things this experiment with paper airplanes reveals about different scientific concepts. This is different from the flight of the foam rockets because there is no rubber band allowing for stored energy. Rather the energy that propels this plane forward is from the person. At the starting point the plane has gravitational potential energy, because the hand acts as the unbalanced force that is preventing the plane from falling to the ground. However when the hand is pulled away gravity can take over and bring the plane to the ground. 

 

The plane goes forward due to inertia. The take off requires that one propels their hands forward. Whatever angle the person lets go of the plane will determine the angle the plane will travel. I let go of my paper airplanes while they were slightly angled up so that the plane would continue at that angle for a while. This is due to inertia. Things that are in motion tend to stay in motion. The plane is in motion while I am holding onto it as well as when I let it go. 

 

Gravity eventually brings the plane down. However the way the air interacts with the plane allows it to glide certain distances and times. Some planes fall faster than others. If the plane's nose begins to face down, it will fall quicker than if it is parallel to the ground. That is what happened with the Bullet plane. If I were outside, I would predict the plane would not travel as far if there was wind against it. The plane seems to either have resistance from the air making it fall quicker to the ground or work in conjunction with the air to make the glide a lot smoother and longer.

There were a few variables that had to remain the same to maintain as much accuracy in the experiment as possible. This would be important to have students analyze as well. Here were the variables I kept the same in my experiment. 

  • The type of paper used to make paper airplanes

    • I used plain printer paper for the construction of the plane.​

  • The strength behind the "send off" of the plane

    • I kept my arm parallel to the floor and my hand slightly bent back so as to keep the angle of takeoff the same in all the trial runs.​

  • The place I began the trials. I stayed in the same location the whole time.

  • The way I measured distance- I measured from the edge of my foot to the tip of the plane once it landed.

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There was one variable I manipulated for this experiment.

  • The type of plane used!

    • This variable had to be manipulated so that we could measure which plane went farther and examine some of the variables that would contribute to this. 

Controlled and Manipulated Variables:

Meet the Planes...

The Outta This World Glider would show itself to be a close second to the champion of the trial runs. 

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This plane features some bend in the wings making it one of a kind.

The Trail Blazer would become the champion with an average travel distance of 6.33 m. 

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This plane features a long tail that makes it a unique design.

Last but not least was the The Bullet. Although this design would come in last in the trials, the flight of this plane was unique. It would often form a boomerang pattern of flight in which it would travel forward and then bring itself back around to move towards the starting point. 

What is happening?

IN ACTION...

The Results: 

Ashley Andre

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