Science Fair Project By: Student 1 Period 4 th

Which type of paper, folded into a plane, can fly/glide/stay up the longest?

3 sheets of standard copy paper 3 sheets of cardstock 3 sheets of newspaper A stopwatch (records seconds) A table to record data Plenty of space Camera (optional) Scissors Pen/pencil Masking tape (one role) Another person to help

1.You are going to make the newspaper and cardstock into 8 ½ inches, by 11 inches. 2.Use the copy paper and trace around the edges on the newspaper and cardstock. Cut out what you have traced. Now you have 3 papers the exact same size. 3.Fold all of the planes a specific plane (instructions on last slide) 4.Find an area with lots of open space to throw the airplanes in. 5.The throwing height will be at 1.5 Meters, which is equivalent to 60 inches. Find that height next to a wall and put a piece of tape at the 1.5 meter mark. 6.You now need a comfortable throwing power. Find a comfortable throwing power and practice it about 10 times. 7.Now you start the actual experiment. Have someone time each airplane flight time. Record the times on a table for graphing in the future.

8. Do the experiment over again! (2-3 times will be sufficient) 9. Now that you have your data from about 9 flights of 3 planes, find the median of the flights. Add them all up, then divide by Once you have all the finalized data, graph it! A bar graph will probably be the best.

NewspaperCopy Paper Cardstock 1 st Flight 2 nd Flight 3 rd flight AVERAGES: Measurements: seconds

During the experiment, I encountered a problem with one of the planes turning drastically. I found that it was folded slightly unevenly so I re-folded a new one with better creases and folds. If this happens, do what I listed above. If you are having really wacky data that is nothing like mine, then do the experiment again. Do it over, until you get sufficient enough data.

Measurement: Seconds Types of paper

The graph clearly shows that the copy paper had the longest flight times. In fact, all three flights were higher than any of the others. After the copy paper, came the newspaper and then the cardstock. the average of all three planes was 1.66, so the newspaper was dead smack on the average of all three.

My hypothesis was: if I fold a standard copy paper into an airplane, then it will fly the longest because the paper is both lightweight and strong. My hypothesis was true according to the data shown in the graph. The copy paper did fly the longest over the other planes—newspaper, and cardstock.