Simones Helicopter Lab

Research Question:
What will be the effect of the length of the wing of a paper
helicopter to the speed it falls at.
Variables:
Independent Variable: Length of the wing
Dependent Variable: Speed ( I will need to measure the height and the
time and use speed = distance time)
Constant:
I. Same Helicopter
II. Same Timer
III. Same height (2m)
Hypothesis:
My hypothesis is that the shorter the length of the helicopter, the
slower it will go.
I think this will happen because the shorter the wings, the lighter it
is. And gravity cant pull it that quick. So the timing will be slower as the
wings get shorter.
Method:
For our helicopter lab, we first measured two meters on the wall so we
have will drop the helicopter at the same place. Then, we will drop the
helicopter and time how long it takes with the stopwatch. We repeat this
step for three tests and with the wing length of 8 cm, 7 cm, 6 cm, 5 cm and
4 cm. Then, we found the average speed of the process our results as a
graph.
To make our test a fair test, we made sure its the same people timing
and dropping the helicopter. Also, we always drop the helicopter from two
meters.
For our safety, we must be careful standing on the chair, no fooling
around.

Apparatus:
1 Paper Helicopter
Stopwatch
100cm ruler
Diagram:

Data Collection:
Raw Data: Time of Flight and Length of the wing on a Helicopter
Time taken for the helicopter to fall a distance of two
meters (s)

The length of the wing of

the helicopter
Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

1,72 sec

1.50 sec

1.72 sec

2.13 sec

2.12 sec

1.82 sec

1.69 sec

1.90 sec

2. 06 sec

1.50 sec

1.84 sec

1.74 sec

1.81 sec

1.75 sec

1.56 sec

Data Processing:
Amount of Paper Clips and the Average Speed of the Paper Helicopter
Time taken for the helicopter to fall a distance of two
meters (s)

The length of the wing of

the helicopter
Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Mean

Average
Speed
(m/s)

1,72 sec

1.50 sec

1.72 sec

1.65

1.21

2.13 sec

2.12 sec

1.82 sec

0.98

2.04

1.69 sec

1.90 sec

2.06 sec

1.25

1.6

1.50 sec

1.84 sec

1.74 sec

0.58

1.44

1.81 sec

1.75 sec

1.56 sec

1.71

0.85

To get the mean, you have to add the three trials together then
divide it by three. For example:
I. 1.83 + 1.68 + 1.31 =4.37
4.37 / 3 = 1.45
To get the speed, you have to divide 2 by the mean of the three
trials. For example:
I. 2 / 1.45 = 1.38
II. 2 / 1.27 = 1.57

Data Presentation:

Conclusion:

According to our graph our hypothesis was supported: The

shorter the length of the wing, the faster the helicopter goes. Our data
corresponds with the line of best fit really well up until our second data
point, which was 7 cm of wing length. It is much higher than all the other
points; I think this one particular piece of data is unreliable because it does
not correspond to the rest of the data as well as the graph. This may be
because our timing methods or height of the starting point when timing it
was different then the rest of our graph. To make sure that this would be
an accurate experiment, we did three trials for each length(s) and then
calculated the mean and speed.

Evaluation:
Our Method was reliable and accurate because for each length of
wing, we had three trials so we could create an average speed. Also, we used
the same person for timer but maybe a bit different height of the starting
point because we didnt measure every time.
If I could re-do the experiment, I would have measure the height of
the staring point every time in 2 meter so we could have more accurate
readings.