change of plans

You know how I was going to compare the wing sizes of The Arrow and The Dart? Well I've decided not to because they are totally different sizes - The Dart is too small to be compared to the Arrow in any way -.-. I think I'll just compare it to The Moth since they are approximately the same size.

D=....I'm writing the discussion now....and it's killing me, but I must admit, the introduction was much more time consuming since there was basically no relevant info on the internet about how the shape of the wings affect a paper plane's flight -.-.

Ah well~

Pictures of the experiment!~

I'm sorry for the late submission....as the experiment was done lik 2 weeks ago...but I really couldn't be bothered for those two weeks. But here they are! Pictures of my experiment in action:

that turned to this:

Oh, and Ms Zhang, what do we have to include in our blog for the final submission?

Results

Hmmm...... here's the results of my experiment which i did last week in my unit's common hall. I have a picture of me throwing the plane outside, but that was before I decided to do my experiment indoors...and the picture's not very good either...it's of the plane falling down. But I don't have my memory card with me right now, so I'll post that picture up in a later post.

In the real report, I won't put the observations, because I don't think they are relevant to my topic, but they are here on my blog if you guys are interested ^^.

CYAZ~

Other controlled variables...

Okay, so I went outside to fly my planes...but it wasn't such a non-windy day as I had expected. My planes kept flying sideways...and that would be either because the uneveness of the wings of the plane or because of the wind. However, I've made my planes as accurate and even as possible, so I think it is possibly the wind. I've decided to do my whole experiment inside, in the common hall of the building (I live in a unit). There is a lot of free space there and there is no wind! Hooray!!

Also, I have decided to glue the centres of my planes together so that wind does not leak through the centre cavity and affect the flight of the planes....do you get me? But I have controlled this because I'm doing it to every plane, and placing the same amount of glue on each. I was about to use paper clips or staples, but figured they may be too heavy.

Awesome~~ I shall go and try it again -.-.

Doing experiment today peeps

Mmm....the sky is grey and I can't see the sun anywhere.......but there isn't any wind either!!~~
Awesome. Great day to do my airplane experiment (just hope it doesn't rain in the middle of it), so I'm going now!! Stay tuned to find out what you want to find out =D.

Aha...how am I going to do my experiment?

Equipment:

• A 30cm piece of ribbon


• 7 pieces of paper


• A 15 metre tape measure.


• 2 medium-sized rocks

Method:

1. Fold all 7 of the plane designs.
   
2. Set up equipment as follows:


3. Stand at the ribbon so that the tip of your front foot is just behind the ribbon.


4. Throw The Simple Plane into the air with its nose pointing directly to the direction it will be thrown.


5. Measure the perpendicular distance flown by the plane from the ribbon.


6. Record the results in a table.


7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 with The Bird, The Arrow, The Arrow Folds Up, The Arrow Folds Down, The Dart and The Moth.


8. Repeat steps 3 to 7 two more times.


9. Discuss and analyse the data collected.

Yes that is my method.....hope that's okay....

My Plane Designs ^^

Hmm...I've uploaded some designs of paper aeroplanes that I will test (they are not the actual planes I will test, but just models). All of these planes are made out of A4 sheets of paper, so that is a controlled variable that I will not be changing. Also, I've decided to base all my designs on the first plane, so that the changes in shape aren't dramatic, and therefore, can obtain more accurate results and conclusions.

Here they are:

This is the simplest paper aeroplane design there is, and all my other designs are based on and built from this design. I'll call this The Simple Plane.

This is a built-on design from the previous image. I'll call this The Bird.

This design is known as The Arrow....yeah awesome name isn't it? It's also a very simple design that I will build on.

Yep, this is The Arrow with part of its wings folded up. I'll call this model The Arrow Folds Up. Wonder how that will affect the distance it flies....

This model is quite the same as the image above, but instead of folding the wings UP this time, I folded them DOWN. I'll call this The Arrow Folds Down (creative ain't it?). See how that affects the distance it flies =D.



Muahahaha, this is called The Dart. Yes...reminds me of a ninja...hope it's just as fast and that it travels far. The Dart is a bit shorter than The Arrow, so from this, I will be able to see how the shortness of a plane affects its flight. The shortness is also part of the shape of the wing, so I have to investigate that too.

My dear friends, I would like to sadly announce that this is unfortunately my last model that I will be testing out in my experiment (sorry for 1. the enormous amount of creases on the paper and 2.the very unnaturally formal language used in the above sentence). Anyways, this design is known as The Moth...the names just keep on getting more interesting as we go don't they? This is the model with 'the blunt nose' so I'll be testing that out too, like if a paper plane needs 'a pointy nose' to be able to fly steadily and far.

Now you guys have probably noticed that I have used models that are quite similar in shape. This is because although I am testing whether the shape of the wings of planes affect the distance it flies, I want to be able to control the amount of change I make to each model, because it's only then that I can obtain the most accurate results and conclusions to answer my aim. I try to change one variable at a time with my different models.


I did not use this model as it is too different from the other ones, and I would not be able to reach accurate conclusions if I compared this with the other models as I would've had to change too many variables.

NOTE: real models will not contain creases, as I know these can affect the flight of the plane.

How aerodynamic are each of these designs. Stay tuned to find out =D.