Paper Helicopters

Explore the forces of flight with paper helicopter templates

Materials

Paper Helicopter Template
- One printout for every four students
Scissors, one per student
Paper clips, one per student

Paper Helicopter Instructions

Cut on the solid lines
Fold on the dotted lines:
Fold Wing A and Wing B in opposite directions from one another.
Fold the bottom in order of X, Y and Z.
Place a paperclip on the bottom of the helicopter to hold Fold Z in place.

Background for Educators

All objects drop at the same speed. For example, a bowling ball and a marble dropped off a water tower will hit the ground at the same time.

The speed of a falling object is slowed when there is air resistance. For example, a bowling ball and a feather dropped off a water tower will result in the bowling ball hitting the ground first. The feather's surface air creates air resistance.

All falling objects are pulled to Earth by gravity. This can be represented by a DOWN arrow next to the falling object. Objects with air resistance experience drag. Drag is represented by an UP arrow next to the object.

On falling objects, drag and gravity work in opposite directions. The greater the drag, the slower the object drops.

In the case of the paper helicopters, drag is increased when the helicopter wings "catch" air and slow down the helicopter's decent.

Template Printout:

PaperHelicopters.pdf

Test and Explore Falling Objects

Using the paper helicopter template (available for download to the left of this page), students will be able to explain why a paper helicopter falls at a different rate than a crumpled paper ball.

Engage

Download the paper helicopter template and cut out one paper helicopter. Take a second piece of paper and crumple it into a ball.

Ask students, "which one will fall faster?" Gather student responses.

Then, drop both at the same time.

Were students mostly correct or mostly incorrect? Use this information to guide the next section.

Explore

Provide each student with a paper helicopter template. Instruct students to first create the paper helicopter exactly like you did in the Engage step. Have them conduct the test between the paper helicopter and the crumpled paper on their own.

Now, challenge students to modify their paper helicopter so it:

drops at the same rate as the crumpled ball.
drops at the slowest possible rate when compared to the crumpled ball.

Explain

Divide the students into two groups.

In one group, students will explain what they did to make the paper helicopter drop at the same rate as a crumpled ball.
In the second group, students will explain how they modified their paper helicopter to drop at the slowest possible rate.

Provide opportunities for students to share their thinking and their experimentation.

Ask students to identify the cause and effect relationships during their experiments. For example, a student might explain that because they increased the angle of their paper helicopter wings, the paper helicopter fell at a slower rate.

Elaborate

Why do some objects fall faster than others? Objects with a lot of air resistance, such as a feather or a paper helicopter, will drop slower than an object with less air resistance.

Draw two columns on the board, labeling one column AIR and the other NO AIR.

Play this video from BBC: Brian Cox visits the world's biggest vacuum.

Pause the video at 1:24 and ask: "What do you think will happen?" Write responses on the board under the AIR column.

Resume the video.

Pause the video again at 2:50 and ask, now that there is no air in the chamber, "What do you think will happen?" Write responses on the board under the column NO AIR.

Evaluate

Ask students to explain the difference between the skydivers in the two pictures below.

Exiting the plane

Deploying the parachute

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