alex bowdler year 2 st john bosco primary school · page 1 of 12 alex bowdler year 2 st john bosco...

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Alex Bowdler year 2

St John Bosco Primary School

Question: Which paper aeroplane flies the furthest?

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Introduction

Paper aeroplanes are always fun to make and fly. The aim of this research is to work out

which design flies the furthest.

Hypothesis

The plane with the biggest wings will fly the furthest.

Design

Which paper aeroplane flies the furthest?

Independent variable Dependent variable Controlled variables

The shape of the plane Distance travelled Paper size and weight Environmental conditions Paper aeroplane launcher People throwing planes

Methodology

Five different designs of paper aeroplane will be chosen and each one folded three times.

The same paper will be used for each plane. The planes will be labelled

1A, 1B, 1C – split nose cone dart (Morris 1983)

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2A, 2B, 2C – long distance glider (Morris 1983)

3A, 3B, 3C – super dart (Morris 1983)

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4A, 4B, 4C – long distance paper airplane (Simon2162 2011)

5A, 5B, 5C – long distance paper glider (Brown 2008)

The testing will take place inside a hall so the environmental conditions will be the same.

Initially each plane will be thrown five times with the paper aeroplane launcher for

consistency and distance measured to the point where plane hits the ground.

Three people will then be allocated to plane A, B or C and each plane thrown five times. The

distance will be measured to where the plane hits the ground.

A laser distance measurer will be used to measure the distance for each flight.

The average distance travelled of each design will be worked out to see which one flies the

furthest.

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Research

There are four forces that act on a plane when it’s flying. Drag, lift, weight and thrust – this

need to be in balance for the plane to fly (Scholastic 2014).

Drag is a mechanical force that slows down the plane (or a backward force). It is a

resistance of the plane through the air like friction (Benson 2014a). Lift is the force that

holds the aeroplane in the air (or an upward force). The wings generate the most lift. As

the plane flies through the air, the air pushes the plane upwards to keep it in the air (Benson

2014b). Weight is the gravitation force from the earth (or downward force). The other

forces required for flying need to overcome the weight of the plane (Benson 2014c). A

paper aeroplane is very light they can avoid some of the effects of gravity (Paper Plane

Mafia 2013). Thrust is the last force that acts on flying. When throwing the paper aeroplane

thrust (or forward force) has to work against the drag to keep the plane flying forward

(Benson 2014d)

(Shaw 2014)

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Results

Summary of averages

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Plane 1 Plane 2 Plane 3 Plane 4 Plane 5

People

Plane launcher

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Result data plane launcher

Plane Design

Plane launcher

Throw 1

Throw 2

Throw 3

Throw 4

Throw 5

Average distance

Total average

Design 1

Plane A 3.217 3.119 2.974 2.918 3.082 3.062

Plane B 3.785 3.472 3.691 3.987 3.857 3.7584

Plane C 3.039 3.014 3.1 2.357 3.066 2.9152 3.245

Design 2

Plane A 3.499 3.277 2.802 3.211 3.45 3.2478

Plane B 3.506 3.633 4 3.166 3.995 3.66

Plane C 3.244 3.323 3.251 1.235 3.478 2.9062 3.271

Design 3

Plane A 2.391 1.526 1.564 2.735 1.527 1.9486

Plane B 1.457 3.433 4.208 2.735 2.5 2.8666

Plane C 3.757 3.68 3.431 3.742 3.958 3.7136 2.842

Design 4

Plane A 2.99 3.052 2.74 2.803 2.553 2.8276

Plane B 2.783 2.833 3.048 3.033 2.924 2.9242

Plane C 2.487 2.772 2.741 2.865 2.842 2.7414 2.831

Design 5

Plane A 2.03 1.867 1.652 1.413 1.462 1.6848

Plane B 1.36 1.578 1.874 1.463 1.609 1.5768

Plane C 1.539 1.136 1.54 1.027 1.141 1.2766 1.512

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Result data – people throwing

Plane Design

People Throw

1 Throw

2 Throw

3 Throw

4 Throw

5 Average distance

Total average

Design 1

Plane A 2.88 4.087 3.25 2.435 3.052 3.1408

Plane B 5.007 7.53 5.689 3.992 3.892 5.222

Plane C 6.092 5.606 3.812 7.891 7.29 6.1382 4.833

Design 2

Plane A 1.759 4.793 7.304 5.008 5.468 4.8664

Plane B 3.169 3.416 4.936 2.807 4.806 3.8268

Plane C 6.76 6.609 7.134 7.666 8.216 7.277 5.323

Design 3

Plane A 4.218 5.074 2.934 4.038 2.057 3.6642

Plane B 8.46 3.357 3.699 3.95 2.178 4.3288

Plane C 4.247 1.965 3.719 5.494 5.228 4.1306 4.041

Design 4

Plane A 1.763 1.668 3.776 2.715 3.006 2.5856

Plane B 3.232 3.01 4.553 4.791 3.29 3.7752

Plane C 2.61 7.444 4.141 7.612 4.22 5.2054 3.855

Design 5

Plane A 1.486 2.834 1.178 3.907 3.304 2.5418

Plane B 4.427 3.035 3.484 3.995 2.797 3.5476

Plane C 3.955 2.143 2.565 1.96 3.791 2.8828 2.990

A Alex

B Lily

C Tony

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Discussion

From the results of testing design number 2 flew the furthest with both the plane launcher

and people throwing it. Design 3 however had the biggest wing span.

The weight of each paper aeroplane was the same as each aeroplane was made out of the

same size and weight of paper. The thrust of the launch of the plane was the same force

with each launch of each plane. The various numbers of flights with different people was to

get an average allowing for different thrust force of each throw and person.

The drag and lift of the paper aeroplane would be different depending on the different

designs of the plane. In doing this testing it was learnt that there are a lot of different forces

that all work together to make the paper aeroplane fly.

Conclusion

The hypothesis is therefore incorrect. It is not the area of the wing that makes the paper

plane fly the furthest. But combinations of the four forces lift, thrust, drag and weight.

If this testing was to be done again the method of testing would be the same. However, the

winning design should be compared to other designs to see if it is still flies the furthest. It

would be interesting to conduct the experiment again and use different weights of paper to

see how that affected the distance flown.

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Design 1 Design 2 Design 3 Design 4 Design 5

Area of Wings mm2

Area of Wings mm2

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge and thank my dad for building the paper plane launcher and

helping me choose and make all the planes. He and my sister also were the other plane

throwers.

My mum also helped with making the graphs and setting out the report.

The Engadine Gymnastics club for letting me use the hall for the testing.

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Bibliography

Benson, T 2014a. What is drag?

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/drag1.html

Benson, T 2014b. What is lift?

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/lift1.html

Benson, T 2014c. What is weight?

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/weight1.html

Benson, T 2014d. What is thrust?

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/thrust1.html

Brown, S 2008. Long distance paper glider

http://www.instructables.com/id/Long-Distance-Paper-Glider

Morris, C 1983. Advanced paper aircraft construction – easy to follow instructions for 14

flyable models. Cornstalk publishing, Australia

Paper Plane Mafia 2013. How do paper airplanes fly?

http://paperplanemafia.com/how-do-paper-airplanes-fly

Scholastic 2014. What makes paper airplanes fly?

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-makes-paper-airplanes-fly

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/drag1.html

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/lift1.html

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/weight1.html

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/thrust1.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Long-Distance-Paper-Glider

http://paperplanemafia.com/how-do-paper-airplanes-fly

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-makes-paper-airplanes-fly

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Shaw, RJ 2013. Dynamics of flight

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/dynamicsofflight.html#forces

Simon2162 2011. Long distance paper glider

http://www.instructables.com/id/long-distance-paper-airplane

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/dynamicsofflight.html#forces

http://www.instructables.com/id/long-distance-paper-airplane

alex bowdler year 2 st john bosco primary school · page 1 of 12 alex bowdler year 2 st john bosco...

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