Spies That Fly
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Student Handout |
Small, Smaller, Smallest
Do you think fighter airplanes have to be big to be effective? Some engineers are working to make smaller aircraft, called unmanned aerial vehicles, which fly without human pilots. See how small you can make an aircraft and still get it to fly.
Procedure
Cut the largest aircraft out and then cut along the heavy black line. Fold the paper along the dotted lines (one flap forward and one flap back) to make your helicopter. Attach the large paper clip at the bottom of the helicopter for your first set of trials. Test your helicopter by dropping the aircraft from a chosen height (use the same height for each test flight). Hold the helicopter from the top, above the blades. Drop the aircraft five times, averaging the times to obtain a mean descent time. Record the times in the chart below. Using the same aircraft, take off the paper clip and drop the model from the same height five more times. Average the times and record them in the chart. Cut out the half-size model. Make the aircraft and attach the small paperclip to the bottom. Test as before. Cut out the quarter-size model. Make the aircraft and add two staples as weight. Test as before. Compare your data to see what changes occurred as you changed scale. Report your results to the class.
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Weight Used |
Trial 1
(seconds) |
Trial 2
(seconds) |
Trial 3
(seconds) |
Trial 4
(seconds) |
Trial 5
(seconds) |
Average
Time(s) |
Model 1
(100 percent) |
large paperclip |
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Model 1
(100 percent) |
none |
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Model 2
(50 percent) |
small paperclip |
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Model 3
(25 percent) |
staple |
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Questions
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
Were the times consistent between trials? Did other groups get similar times to yours? If not, what could account for the difference? Did the aircraft become more or less stable as it was scaled down? How did you determine stability? Did it seem to spin faster or slower as it got smaller? What are some of the factors you would need to think about if you had to add such features as microelectronics, propulsion systems, and control mechanisms to your aircraft?
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