TITLE: THE FLIGHT PLATFORM
AUTHOR: JOHN SANDRU, Battle Mountain Junior High,
Battle Mountain, NV
GRADE LEVEL: This lesson can be utilized with any
grade level that is currently working with flight.
OVERVIEW: This lesson on flight (delta dart airplanes)
incorporates the inquiry method of discovery to explain
the forces that are exerted on and airplane. This is a
hands on lesson that lets students answer questions
that are asked of them and that they will ASK
themselves.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this lesson is to reinforce
the concepts learned while studying flight.
OBJECTIVES:
1. Upon completion of this activity, the students
will understand and appreciate the forces acting
upon an aircraft in flight. The student will be
able to express the effects upon an aircraft of
lift, thrust, drag, and weight.
2. Upon completion of the activity, the student will
understand that the major ingredient of lift is
provided by Bernoulli's Principle.
3. Upon completion of the activity, the student will
understand and be able to relate the effect upon
flight stability of the dihedral angle and the
center of gravity.
RESOURCES/MATERIALS:
This lesson is designed to be used with the Delta Dart
airplane.
ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
As an introduction to this activity, the teacher
should begin with an overview of the forces acting upon
a plane in flight. Chalkboard recording of the
students responses to the question "What makes it fly?"
or "What forces act upon an airplane in flight?"
trigger discussion and involvement. The teacher might
focus the discussion toward the specialized terminology
and eventually arrive at four forces(gravity, lift,
thrust, drag). The most difficult force to explain
will be the concept of lift and the Bernoulli Principle
that governs it.
In an ACTUAL plane more that 3/4 of the entire
weight is held up by the air flow on the top of the
wings. This is because of Bernoulli's Principle which
states that when air moves faster across the top of a
wing than across the bottom surface the pressure of
the air pushing down is smaller than the pressure
pushing up.
There are many demonstrations and experiments
designed as illustrations of this principle.
Activity
EQUIPMENT: To complete the following activity you will
need to have two index cards( one 3x5 and one 5x8 )
and eight or nine paper clips.
PROCEDURE:
Using the smaller card, hold it high over your
head and release it with a gentle push. As the card
falls, its flight pattern will be erratic and random.
Repeat this flight several times before you place a
paper clip at the center of one of the longer edges of
the card. Place the small end of the clip at least a
quarter of an inch from the edge. Repeat the flight
test adding one paper clip until the glide path of the
card becomes constant.
How many paper clips did it take for your card to
become stable? If your platform were an aircraft,
would a heavy weight load be desirable if you had
another method of insuring stability? Of course not.
Since your platform is now stable, but heavy with paper
clips, you are now ready to experiment with the use of
dihedral angle. Use of the dihedral may allow you to
remove some of the paper clips Fold your card in half
using the axis which goes through your paper clips.
The platform should have a V shape. Using the . card
create a dihedral and use enough paper clips to make it
stable
How many clips did it take for the platform to
become stable?
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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org