TAD

Morphology of Bacteria

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 * Introduction **

Have you ever wondered what makes a paper plane fly? Some paper planes clearly fly better than others. But why is this? One factor is the kind of design used to build the plane. In this activity you'll get to build a paper plane and change its basic design to see how this affects its flight. There's a lot of cool science in this activity, such as how forces act on a plane so it can fly. So get ready to start folding!


 * Background **

The forces that allow a paper plane to fly are the same ones that apply to real airplanes. A force is something that pushes or pulls on something else. When you throw a paper plane in the air, you are giving the plane a push to move forward. That push is a type of force called thrust. While the plane is flying forward, air moving over and under the wings is providing an upward lift force on the plane. At the same time, air pushing back against the plane is slowing it down, creating a drag force. The weight of the paper plane also affects its flight, as gravity pulls it down toward Earth. All of these forces (thrust, lift, drag and gravity) affect how well a given paper plane's voyage goes.

[|Airplane Designs]

Using only paperclips, tape and scissors make a helicopter that falls the slowest. Use the idea of the whirlybird seeds to spark your imagination. Be creative! After 10 minutes, stop building and drop each team's helicopter from the same height.

Air and Aerodynamics Web Quest