How to make paper airplanes fly farther

Let's have a fun experiment to find the paper airplane that flies the farthest! You'll need to try out different designs and choose the right paper. Here's how we can do it:

Why Do Airplanes Fly Differently?

You might wonder, "Which paper airplane goes the farthest?" It's a tricky question because many things can make a difference. For instance, if an adult throws really hard outside with the wind, it's different from a kid throwing gently indoors.

Things That Affect How Airplanes Fly

There are lots of things that can change how far an airplane flies. Some are easy to understand, but some need us to try them out:

• Paper Size: Big or small, which one flies better?

• Paper Thickness: Does thicker paper help?

• How High You Throw: Higher up means farther, usually.

• How Hard You Throw: Harder throws can help, but too hard might bend the wings.

• Angle of Throw: Straight, 30°, 45°, or other angles? Which is best?

• Wind: Going with the wind is good, against it might not be.

• Center of Mass: Should it be at the front or back?

• Symmetry: Accurate folds make it balanced. Does it matter?

• Crisp or Gentle Folds: Which works better?

• Altitude: Places high up have less air pressure. Does that change things?

Doing the Experiment

When we experiment, we change just one thing at a time. For example, if we want to know the best angle, we keep everything else the same and just change the angle. We'll use an indoor space so the wind doesn't mess up our results.

Step 1: Make a guess! This is called a hypothesis. Like, "I think 45° is the best angle."

Step 2: Get a long measuring tape or use a string with marks.

Step 3: Throw your airplanes lots of times at each angle (or whatever you're testing). Write down how far they went each time.

Looking at Our Results

Now, let's draw a graph. X-axis is the different angles (or whatever we tested), and Y-axis is the distance. Put a dot for each throw, then connect the dots to see a pattern.

If the dots in the middle are higher, that means the middle value worked best!

If the dots are all about the same height, it means the thing we tested didn't make much difference.

Conclusion

Did your results match your guess? If yes, great job! If not, that's okay too – you learned something new! You can try again with different designs or conditions.

Way to go! You just did a cool paper airplane experiment!

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