Paper Airplane Lab Experiment

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Paper Airplane Lab Experiment
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Questions

• 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?

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Introduction

• 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?

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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?

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Hypothesis

• 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?

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Hypothesis

• What do you think is going to happen?
• If the wingspan of the airplane is _________ ,
  then ___________
• _________________________.

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Materials

• What do we need to perform this experiment?
• Make a list of materials
• Everything and anything we need to carry out the
  experiment.

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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?

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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.

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Data
Type of airplane Flight Distance (m)
1
2
3
4
5
6
Average distance

• Data Table with measurements from the experiment.
• Include headings and labels.

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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.

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Lab Report Write Up

• Data Tables and Graphs
• Conclusion Explain your results, Reject or
  accept hypothesis
• Questions Answer the questions about the lab in
  complete sentences.

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Hypothesis

• Statement saying what you expect to happen

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Abstract

• Purpose
• Final results
• Background information
• Must be in complete sentences

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Data

• Tables
• Graphs
• Calculations

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Procedure

• Materials
• Step-by-step directions (can be bulleted list)

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Conclusion

• Explain results in detail
• Is hypothesis proven or disproven? Give reason if
  disproven
• Sources of error

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Conclusion

• What did you learn during the experiment?
• Is there anything that you should have or would
  have done differently?
• Must be in complete sentences
• Answers to questions

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Questions

• What is distance? How was distance involved in
  this experiment?
• What is displacement? Which is more important in
  this experiment, distance or displacement?
• What are you manipulating in this experiment?
  What is your independent variable?
• The answers to the questions must be in complete
  sentences!

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Questions

• What are you measuring? What was the dependent
  variable in this experiment?
• Should your results be the same as others? Why or
  why not?
• The answers to the questions must be in complete
  sentences!

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Paper Airplane Lab Report
Use buttons to navigate through the lab report
Return to write-up page
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Hypothesis
If the wingspan is larger then it will give the
plane more lift so that it flies farther.
Return to write-up page
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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.
Return to write-up page
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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.
Return to write-up page
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Procedures

• Materials
• Origami paper
• Instructions
• Meter stick
• Masking tape
• Pencil
• notebook

Return to write-up page
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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.

Return to write-up page
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Procedures

1. Gather notebook, meter-stick, pencil, and
   airplanes to take to runway.
2. Put down everything except your airplane.
3. Stand on the runway start line. Stand in the same
   place each time.

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Procedures

1. 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.
2. Measure the distance the airplane flew to the
   nose of the airplane using the meter stick.

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Procedures

1. Record your data in your notebook and pick up
   your airplane. Also record any problem you may
   have encountered. (Hitting people, bending the
   nose)
2. Measure the distance the airplane flew to the
   nose of the airplane using the meter stick.

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Procedures

1. Repeat steps 7 11 for 6 trials.
2. Repeat steps 7 12 for the other 2 airplanes.
3. Pick up all of your materials and return to
   classroom.
4. Return the meter sticks recycle your airplanes

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Data
Flying Wing Flying Wing
Trial Flight 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 Interceptor
Trial Flight 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 Elephant
Trial Flight Distance (m)
1 5.32
2 4.75
3 5.84
4 6.37
5 5.73
6 6.49
Average Distance 5.75
Return to write-up page
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Data
Return to write-up page
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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 Interceptors.

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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.

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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.

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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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38
Questions

• What are you manipulating in this experiment?
  What is your independent variable?
  ______________________________
• What are you measuring? What was the dependent
  variable in this experiment? _____________________
  _________

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39
Questions

1. Should your results be the same as others? Why or
   why not? _________________________________________
   ___________________

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