Aim: To investigate the relationship between wing span and drag for a paper helicopter
Equipment: Stopwatch, 4 paper helicopters, a paper clip, scissors, meter ruler
Method:
- Cut out and assemble the four helicopters shown on the opposite page. Ensure each wing of the helicopters are different lengths to give 4cm, 5cm, 6cm and 7cm. Attach paper clips to each of the helicopters.
- One member holds a helicopter at the height of 2 meters from the ground.
- On the count of three, the person holding the helicopter drops it, while another member of your group times measures how long it takes for the helicopter to hit the floor with a stopwatch for accuracy.
- Record your results in a table.
- Repeat each drop three times.
- Calculate the average time for the three drops.
- Repeat steps 2-5 using the other helicopter models.
Results:
| Time to fall (s) | ||||
| Wing Span (sm) | Trial 1 | Trial 2 | Trial 3 | Average Time |
| 4 | 1:06 | 1:09 | 1:12 | 1:09 |
| 5 | 1:56 | 1:41 | 1:63 | 1:53 |
| 6 | 1:41 | 1:69 | 1:66 | 1:58 |
| 7 | 1:84 | 1:72 | 1:85 | 1:80 |
Discussion:
An unbalanced force acting upon all paper helicopters. This force let them drop due to the gravitational force and weight. However, ones with a longer wingspan took longer to fall because they had more drag, larger surface area that catches more air, generating a greater air resistance compared to the shorter wingspan.
Conclusion:
The wingspan of the helicopter impacted the time of fall significantly throughout our experiment. The graph showcases a linear relationship between the time of fall and wingspan. As we reduced the length of our wingspan, the time of fall decreased because of less surface area and less drag. Having an increased amount of surface area allows the wings to generate more lift as they spin and float downward at a much slower rate.