Paper Airplane Activity

Physical Science Name______Lab #12 – Paper Airplane Contest Period ______De Stigter

Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to create a curiosity about motion and speed as it relates to time and distance.

Safety Precautions: Students need to be careful when using paper airplanes. The nose of an airplane can cause damage to the eye. Safety goggles are required for this lab.

Materials Allowed: Maximum of: 2 sheets of paper, 3 paper clips, 3 inches of tape. Design your own paper airplane and color it. No inappropriate symbols, words, etc.

Disqualifications: As a judge, I have the right to disqualify any plane or pilot due to illegal modifications, too many flying attempts, cheating, and performance enhancing substances.

Part I: Practice Session Each pilot will have 5 minutes of practice time to fly their plane and make alterations to them. **Note: Only 3 paperclips and 3 inches of tape will be allowed on your plane.**

Observations: 1. How did your plane fly during practice runs? Explain.

2. What alterations did you make to your plane after the practice time? What did you hope to accomplish?

3. Based on your practice flights, make a hypothesis for how fast your plane will fly in meters/second.

Part II: Contest Individually you are allowed to make only 3 attempts at flying your paper airplane. Each attempt must have time (seconds) and distance (meters) measured to determine speed. Your lab group needs to help out by providing you with these measurements. Stopwatches and a meter stick will be provided. (Hint: Use lines on the gym floor to measure a straight lin Measurements: Distance (meters) Time (sec) Flight #1

Flight #2

Flight #3 Part III: Analysis 1. Determine the speed of your flights. Show your work off to the right hand side.

Flight #1 ______

Flight #2 ______

Flight #3 ______

2. Use Microsoft Excel on a laptop to make a graph of the following: a. The speed of your 3 flights b. The average speed for each member of your lab group. c. The average speed for your entire lab group. d. Individually each class member’s fastest speed.

*Total # of graphs to include =’s 4*

3. What was your average speed for the flights of your paper airplane in m/s?

4. What was the average speed for your lab group in m/s?

5. In a paragraph, summarize what happened during lab #13. Also describe the results you and your lab group got. How did it compare to the other groups in the paper airplane contest? What could you do to increase the speed of your plane?