Paper Airplane
Materials: Paper (copier or computer printer paper works best), some 1/2" or 3/4"
cellophane tape, and a paper clip. (make a copy of the "Bernoulli Plane" template so you
can make several and experiment with different ways of making it fly)
Procedure
Build a special paper airplane to demonstrate how and why airplanes and most birds can
fly (when they're not flapping their wings).
Cut Out Plane Template At Bottom of Page.
Cut out the airplane's shape along the dark solid line. Next, fold the top half at the dotted
line so that it meets the bottom half. Don't, however, fully crease the paper at the fold (we
want to make a nice 'tear drop' air foil shape). After folding the paper back, put a small
piece of tape at the wing tips and at the center at the points marked A, B, and C. Now fold
the plane along the center crease so that it creates a flattened out 'V'. The angle of the 'V'
should be no more than about 15 degrees.
Test fly the plane and adjust its stability. Keep the nose of the plane from rising (stalling)
by adding a small weight to the nose (point D), a paper clip or two does nicely. You can
also adjust how much the plane dives or climbs by cutting small slots in the tail of the
plane and bending the paper at the cuts up or down. Experiment with putting them up or
down and seeing what effect that has on the way the plane flies. People who know about
airplanes call these little 'tabs' an elevator if it makes the plane go up or down and a
rudder if it makes the plane turn right or left.
What's going on?
Contrary to popular belief, airplanes don't float on the air, they're sucked up into it. This
reason is known as Bernoulli's Principle. It says: "...as air travels faster [than surrounding
air] across a surface, the air pressure against it is reduced...".
By curving the top of an airplane's wing, air above it has to travel farther (as the distance is
greater) than the air below, forcing the air to move faster. The result is lower pressure on
top and more pressure on the bottom. Another name for this is lift. The higher pressure
below the wing is just like someone pushing from below the wing; the lower pressure
above the wing is like someone pulling it up (like sucking on a straw to draw up milk in a
glass). If a wing has enough lift upwards, it moves upward, if a wing has lift downwards, it
moves downward.
Even though most paper airplanes have 'flat' wings, they still cause the air to move the
same way. The plane that we built, the "Bernoulli Plane" has a real airfoil and more closely
resembles and flies the way that real planes and most birds do.
Things to Remember
Bernoulli's Principle is a relation discovered by the 18th-century Swiss scientist and
mathematician Daniel Bernoulli. He discovered that the faster a fluid (such as air) moves,
the lower is the pressure that it exerts.
Credit: http://www.fatlion.com/science
cellophane tape, and a paper clip. (make a copy of the "Bernoulli Plane" template so you
can make several and experiment with different ways of making it fly)
Procedure
Build a special paper airplane to demonstrate how and why airplanes and most birds can
fly (when they're not flapping their wings).
Cut Out Plane Template At Bottom of Page.
Cut out the airplane's shape along the dark solid line. Next, fold the top half at the dotted
line so that it meets the bottom half. Don't, however, fully crease the paper at the fold (we
want to make a nice 'tear drop' air foil shape). After folding the paper back, put a small
piece of tape at the wing tips and at the center at the points marked A, B, and C. Now fold
the plane along the center crease so that it creates a flattened out 'V'. The angle of the 'V'
should be no more than about 15 degrees.
Test fly the plane and adjust its stability. Keep the nose of the plane from rising (stalling)
by adding a small weight to the nose (point D), a paper clip or two does nicely. You can
also adjust how much the plane dives or climbs by cutting small slots in the tail of the
plane and bending the paper at the cuts up or down. Experiment with putting them up or
down and seeing what effect that has on the way the plane flies. People who know about
airplanes call these little 'tabs' an elevator if it makes the plane go up or down and a
rudder if it makes the plane turn right or left.
What's going on?
Contrary to popular belief, airplanes don't float on the air, they're sucked up into it. This
reason is known as Bernoulli's Principle. It says: "...as air travels faster [than surrounding
air] across a surface, the air pressure against it is reduced...".
By curving the top of an airplane's wing, air above it has to travel farther (as the distance is
greater) than the air below, forcing the air to move faster. The result is lower pressure on
top and more pressure on the bottom. Another name for this is lift. The higher pressure
below the wing is just like someone pushing from below the wing; the lower pressure
above the wing is like someone pulling it up (like sucking on a straw to draw up milk in a
glass). If a wing has enough lift upwards, it moves upward, if a wing has lift downwards, it
moves downward.
Even though most paper airplanes have 'flat' wings, they still cause the air to move the
same way. The plane that we built, the "Bernoulli Plane" has a real airfoil and more closely
resembles and flies the way that real planes and most birds do.
Things to Remember
Bernoulli's Principle is a relation discovered by the 18th-century Swiss scientist and
mathematician Daniel Bernoulli. He discovered that the faster a fluid (such as air) moves,
the lower is the pressure that it exerts.
Credit: http://www.fatlion.com/science
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