Results:

25cm Paper Airplane – 9.204m

 

 

 

 

 

 

20cm Paper Airplane – 7.066m

 

 

 

 

 

 

15cm Paper Airplane – 3.728m

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection:

This lab taught me that within the constraints of an 8×11 paper sheet, the longer the body of the airplane, the further it will fly when thrown from eye height. When constructed using the basic method, the weight of an 8×11 paper is not enough to counteract the forwards momentum and aerodynamic lift for the first ~9 meters. When the airplane was cut down to be shorter, although it was lighter, it did not sustain enough energy to fly farther than a longer airplane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next time, I would like to experiment with increasing the body length and find the point at which the plane becomes too heavy to fly efficiently. My hypothesis is that graphing this would produce a parabola, and the vertex would be the most efficient and farthest-flying paper airplane.

Additionally, I would be interested in creating a robotic arm that would consistently throw paper airplanes at the same angle and force. This would provide much more accurate results than a student throwing with their arm.