Heavy Helicopters
Students learn about weight and drag forces by making paper helicopters and measuring how adding more weight affects the time it takes for the helicopters to fall to the ground.
Students make simple paper helicopters and test them with different weights.
For safety, speed and fuel efficiency, when designing recreation and transportation vehicles, engineers take into account all forces acting on the object. Engineers consider drag forces when they design land, air and water vehicles. When prototyping objects such as wings, windshields, propellers, helmets, sports equipment, or even an athlete's position, engineers use a wind tunnel to see the drag forces that are created around an object when air moves by, and they adjust their designs to minimize the amount of drag.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define drag and explain how this force depends upon factors such as the shape of a helicopter blade.
- Explain that weight is a force that increases by adding mass.
- Collect data, make graphs and calculate averages.
- Think of ideas for how engineers might re-design a helicopter for different purposes.