Just Wing It

If the four forces (Gravity, Thrust, Drag, and Lift) work together proper we believe airplane number four will stay in the air the longest. We think this because the wing shape is rectangular so the air might flow around it better. Especially because the other designs are way more wavy so the flow of air might not be as smooth.

What are the aspects of an airplane that makes it fly?

There are 4 forces that a airplane requires to fly. They are gravity, thrust, drag,& lift. When you throw the airplane that gives it thrust. Then the air that comes against it is drag. The air coming up from under the wings is lift. Finally, the gravity that comes from the Earth is ergo, gravity. All these force together is what makes a airplane fly. Even Bernoulli's principle will tell you the exact same stuff. So with all these forces, gravity, thrust, drag, and lift this is what make the common airplanes fly.

Controlled Variables

Things we have to be very careful to keep the same every time we test so that they do not affect the results/outcome of the experiment:

•

The body shape of the airplane

•

The kind of popsicle sticks we use

•

Where we test the airplanes

•

The day we test the airplanes

•

The stopwatch we use

•

The kind of paper we use

•

Finally the size paper we use

Manipulated / Dependent Variable

ONE thing that you will test/change:

We will change the design of the wing on the airplane.

Responding / Independent Variable

The thing I think will change or be affected: We think that the time it stays in the air will be affected.

How will you measure it? :

We will use a timer to measure our results.

1.

Make 5 different designs

2.

Test each design 4 times

3.

Use a stopwatch to time each design

4.

Take pictures while testing

5.

Evaluate results in log book

6.

Then, write conclusion

Experiment: Trial 1

Test 1 | 1.47 seconds

Test 2 | 1.67 seconds

Test 3 | 1.59 seconds

Test 4 | 1.73 seconds

Experiment: Trial 2

Test 1 | 1.99 seconds

Test 2 | 1.59 seconds

Test 3 | 1.66 seconds

Test 4 | 1.06 seconds

Experiment: Trial 3

Test 1 | 1.67 seconds

Test 2 | 1.59 seconds

Test 3 | 2.99 seconds

Test 4 | 1.60 seconds

Experiment: Trial 4

Test 1 | 1.73 seconds

Test 2 | 1.07 seconds

Test 3 | 1.21 seconds

Test 4 | 1.40 seconds

We noticed that the planes flew in loops a lot. They all stayed between one and two seconds except on trial three where one test lasted 2.99. Every time the planes landed in a nosedive. We found out that trial three had the bes time out of the other trials. Also, the planes often didn't go very far, some even came back. In addition, the way the planes flew were all a bit different from each other because of the wing shape.

The answer to my question is that trial number three was the best wing design. Number three probably had the best flow of air allowing it to fly longer. My hypothesis was incorrect because my hypothesis was that number four would fly the longest because of its narrow wing design. However, when we tested it, number three ended up staying in the air the longest.

We think our findings are useful because when engineers make airplanes this can help them find an efficient way to design a wing that can stay in the air longer for more direct flights. Also, this can make people's lives efficient especially those who travel a lot for work so if they have connecting flights they don't have to worry too much about their flights being delayed.

One problem was when I was building the models the wings were very flimsy so I had to reinforce the wings with packing tape. Also, you had to put only one layer of tape or else it would become too thick. In addition, you would have to carefully cut around the paper if the tape became too thick. The strength of our paper could have affected how long the airplane stays in the air.