Paper Airplane Lab Experiment

Have you flown a paper airplane before? (Hopefully not in this class)

Do you always use the same type of paper?

Do you always use the same design?

Do you want it to fly straight or do tricks?

Questions:

We are going to design an experiment to test the flight capability of paper airplanes.

You have to choose what you wish to test: distance, the ability to do trips.

We need to think about how we are going to design and perform the experiment.

What things do we need to think about?

Introduction:

Problem:

What question are we trying to answer?

We want to design an experiment to test how the design of an airplane affects its ability to fly.

How does the design of an airplane affect its ability to fly?

What do you think is going to happen?How do you think the design will

affect its ability to fly?Will the length of the wingspan

matter?Will the size of the rudder matter?Will the size of the elevators matter?Do the size of the ailerons matter?

Hypothesis:

What do you think is going to happen?

If the wingspan of the airplane is _________ , then ____________________________________.

Hypothesis:

Materials: What do we need to perform this

experiment?

Make a list of materials: Everything and anything we need to carry out the experiment.

Procedure: How are we going to perform the

experiment?What do we need to do? What needs to be kept constant?What is our control?What is our independent variable

going to be?

Procedure:Where are we going to perform the

experiment?What are we going to observe?

How? This should be written as a list of

numbered steps.

Data:

Data Table with measurements from the experiment.

Include headings and labels.

Type of airplane

Flight Distance (m)

1

2

3

4

5

6

Average distance

Lab Report Write Up Must include:

Hypothesis: One sentence about what you think will happen

Abstract: one paragraph about why we did this experiment

Procedure: Step by step explanation of what you did to perform the experiment.

Lab Report Write UpData: Tables and GraphsConclusion: Explain your

results, Reject or accept hypothesis

Questions: Answer the questions about the lab in complete sentences.

HypothesisStatement saying what you

expect to happen

AbstractPurposeFinal resultsBackground informationMust be in complete sentences

DataTablesGraphsCalculations

ProcedureMaterialsStep-by-step directions (can be

bulleted list)

ConclusionExplain results in detailIs hypothesis proven or disproven?

Give reason if disprovenSources of error

ConclusionWhat did you learn during the

experiment?Is there anything that you should

have or would have done differently?Must be in complete sentencesAnswers to questions

Questions:1. What is distance? How was distance

involved in this experiment?2. What is displacement? Which is more

important in this experiment, distance or displacement?

3. What are you manipulating in this experiment? What is your independent variable?

The answers to the questions must be in complete sentences!

Questions:4. What are you measuring? What was

the dependent variable in this experiment?

5. Should your results be the same as others? Why or why not?

The answers to the questions must be in complete sentences!

Use buttons to navigate Use buttons to navigate through the lab reportthrough the lab report

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Hypothesis:

If the wingspan is larger then it will give the plane more lift so that it flies farther.

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Abstract:

Planes depend on both thrust and lift to glide. Thrust is the forward movement of the aircraft. Lift is the difference in pressure above and below the wings that enables the plane to glide. Planes that fly longer typically have large wingspans and are flown with little thrust.

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Abstract:The goal of this experiment is to determine the airplane design that travels the farthest. The Interceptor was found to travel the farthest with an average distance of 6.23 meters.

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Procedures:

Materials

•Origami paper

•Instructions

•Meter stick

•Masking tape

•Pencil

•notebook

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Procedures:

1. Get origami paper and folding instructions from table.

2. Fold paper airplane according to instructions.

3. Refold wings to stabilize flight.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the other designs.

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Procedures:

5. Gather notebook, meter-stick, pencil, and airplanes to take to runway.

6. Put down everything except your airplane.

7. Stand on the runway start line. Stand in the same place each time.

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Procedures:

8. With the airplane in hand, pull your arm back and throw the airplane down the runway. Make sure you throw it the same way each time.

9. Measure the distance the airplane flew to the nose of the airplane using the meter stick.

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Procedures:

10.Record your data in your notebook and pick up your airplane. Also record any problem you may have encountered. (Hitting people, bending the nose)

11.Measure the distance the airplane flew to the nose of the airplane using the meter stick.

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Procedures:

12.Repeat steps 7 – 11 for 6 trials.

13.Repeat steps 7 – 12 for the other 2 airplanes.

14.Pick up all of your materials and return to classroom.

15.Return the meter sticks recycle your airplanes

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Data:

Flying Wing

TrialFlight

Distance (m)

1 3.14

2 2.23

3 3.45

4 2.69

5 3.82

6 4.73

Average Distance

3.34

Interceptor

TrialFlight

Distance (m)

1 4.53

2 6.23

3 7.14

4 7.52

5 6.59

6 5.34

Average Distance

6.23

Elephant

TrialFlight

Distance (m)

1 5.32

2 4.75

3 5.84

4 6.37

5 5.73

6 6.49

Average Distance

5.75

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Data:

Conclusion:

My data shows that the Interceptor flew farther than the Flying Wing and the Elephant with an average distance of 6.23m. This disproves my hypothesis because its wingspan was smaller than the Interceptor’s.

Conclusion:

I think that the distances for the Interceptor should have been closer together, but because I hit Suzie and bent the nose of the plane the distances varied. Also the Flying Wing did not fly as well as the other planes possibly because I did not give it any elevators.

Conclusion:

If I did the experiment again I would try giving the Flying Wing some elevators to give it more lift. I would also make sure no one was on the runway when I threw the plane.

Conclusion:

I learned a better method to measure large distances. I also learned about flight and the types of wings on planes and how they are used to make planes fly better.

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Questions:1.What is distance? _______________ How

was distance involved in this experiment? ______________________________

2.What is displacement? _______________ Which is more important in this experiment, distance or displacement? _____________

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Questions:

3. What are you manipulating in this experiment? What is your independent variable? ______________________________

4. What are you measuring? What was the dependent variable in this experiment? ______________________________

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Questions:

5. Should your results be the same as others? Why or why not? ____________________________________________________________