Paper Airplane Experiment

Question: Does the design of a paper airplane affect how far it flies?

Hypothesis/Research: The design of a paper airplane will increase or decrease

how far it flies because the way the paper airplane is shaped affects how much air
passes through the top and bottom of the wing. The wing design of a paper airplane
is dependent on forces such as lift because it allows the plane to stay in the air,
which can increase or decrease the distance it travels. Certain wing designs might
negatively affect the lift of a paper airplane which would later on cause it to not
travel a far distance. As a result of this one can infer that plane A will fly the
farthest distance because of how the wing is shaped.

Procedure:
Airplane A:
1: Fold one piece of paper in half the long way.
2: Fold the two outer corners so they meet in the center.
3: Fold the top point down the center of the paper.
4: Next fold the top two side corners to the middle of the paper.
5: Fold the point in the center of the paper upward so that it secures the flaps.
6: Then fold the whole paper in half the long way.
7: Fold both flaps upward to create the wing.
8: Unfold the wing so they are perpendicular to the body of the airplane.
Airplane B:
1: Fold a piece of paper in half the long way.
2: Fold the top two corners to the center of the paper.
3: Fold the edges of the paper to the center.
4: Fold the paper in half so all the previous fold is not visible.
5: Fold down the two flaps to flaps to make the wing.
6: Open up the wings and there’s your completed paper airplane.
Airplane C:
1: Fold a piece of paper in half the short way(widthwise)
2: Fold the two outer corners the two center of the paper.
3: Fold the top corner to the center of the paper.
4: Fold the top two outer corners inward so they meet at the center of the paper.
5: Fold the whole paper in half so none of the previous fold is visible.
6: Fold each side of the paper outward to create the wing.
7: Open up the wings to create your paper airplane.
Airplane D:
1: Fold a piece of paper in half the long way.
2: Fold the top two corners to the center of the paper.
3: Fold the paper in half so none of the folds are visible.
4: Fold the sides of the paper to create the wing of the paper airplane.
After Creating your Paper Airplanes…
1: First you want to fly plane A. Before throwing it you want to position the plane
near your face and throw your plane starting from the side of your eye.
2: After plane A lands you want to take the measuring tape and measure the
distance of the plane from the starting point to where it landed.
3: After that, you will need to record the distance on your chart.
4: Repeat these steps for all Four paper airplanes.

Table:

Trows Plane A Plane B Plane C Plane D

1 678.5 cm 417.68 cm 437 cm 184 cm

2 506 cm 186.3 cm 417.91 cm 246.1 cm
3 522.1 cm 368 cm 299 cm 207 cm
4 715.99 cm 301.76 cm 425.5 cm 138 cm
5 527.7 cm 416.3 cm 446.2 cm 207 cm

Chart:
Analysis:
The Mean Of All Four Paper Airplanes
Plane A 590.058
Plane B 338.008
Plane C 405.122
Plane D 196.42

After conducting my experiment and calculating the mean for each paper airplane I
came to the conclusion that the design of a paper airplane has a huge effect on the
distance it travels. As shown in the table above none of the paper airplanes traveled
the same distance. For example, the mean of plane A was 590.058 while on the
other hand the mean for plane D was 196.42 which shows that the design was the
reason that plane A flew the most distance and that plane D flew the least distance.
My hypothesis was correct because certain paper airplane designs will cause the
plane to fly a far distance while other designs will cause the plane to not travel as
far. My hypothesis was also correct because plane A did fly the farthest distance
because of how the wing was folded and shaped.
Sources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-
paper-planes-drag/

https://paperplanemafia.com/how-do-paper-airplanes-fly/