Methodology

Question or Problem being addressed


How does the shape of a paper airplane affect its flight distance?

Goals / Expected Outcomes / Hypothesis

Our goal is to find out how does the shape of the paper air plane affect its flight distance. We think that the wind flowing through the different shapes will affect its distance. We expect to see the difference in distance for different paper airplanes. 

should be included when formulating ANY AND ALL research plans.)  

• Procedures:

Detail all procedures and experimental design to be used for data collection.

PROCEDURE:

1.First we would gather all the relavent material in order for the experiment to be carried out . We would also scout for a location for our experiment to be carried out. ( most probably one of our house ). 

2.We would find one day where all of us are free and we would meet up and go to our location. First we would be folding the paper airplanes. Probably while some of us are doing up the air planes , the rest can set up the circuit for the planes to fly on. Ex. Measuring the fixed distance for the plane to fly , getting the graph ready so that we can record down the data efficiently. Basically in this part we would just be getting the equipments ready for our experiment. 

3. We would have in total of 5 different paper airplanes and we would fly each airplane at least 20 times in order for a accurate reading. We would take the average of the results and that would be our final result for that paper airplane. Finally we would take down the results and record it down on the graphs. 

4.For the other part of our project , we would be going to school and using the wind tunnel in our school to carry out the second part of our project. We would put the best plane that we had after doing the first part of the experiment in the wind tunnel , observing the flow of the wind through the wings . We would observe and record down on a table on how the wind flow affect its flight efficiency. 

5.If required, make a graph, with the x axis as the amount of distractions and the y axis as the work completed/quality of work.

6.Enter results into the 'Results' tab in the blog.

• Risk and Safety:

1.The wind tunnel has to be handle with care as it might cause injuries if it is not handled properly. 

2. The only risk there is the handling of the wind tunnel, however we would be accompanied by a teacher when using the wind tunnel.

3. Read and learn how to use the wind tunnel before messing with it. 

4. Describe the disposal procedures that will be used (when applicable). Not applicable

5. List the source(s) of safety information.

Instructions given by teachers in regards to safety

• Data Analysis:

1. Collate and sort the results from the experiment.

2. Compare the results.
3. Find out which variables affect the results and record them down.
4. Determine if the hypothesis is correct by comparing to results.

5. Write down our final results.

Materials Required :

~Paper 

~Mac

~Reference book 

~Sources from the web 

~Measuring Tape 

~Wind tunnel ( provided by school )