2/15/13 Area

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This slide shows the shapes for a variety of wings and rocket fins as viewed from the side while looking onto the fin. This
view is called a planform of the wing or fin. You can see that wings come in many different planforms: rectangular,
triangular, trapezoidal, or even elliptical. To determine the lift and drag that a wing generates, you must be able to calculate
the area of any of these shapes. This skill is taught in middle school and used every day by design engineers. The area is
the two-dimensional amount of space that an object occupies. Area is measured along the surface of an object and has
dimensions of length squared; for example, square feet of material, or centimeters squared.

On the slide we have listed the formula to calculate the area of a variety of shapes: The area of a rectangle is equal to the
height h times the base b;

A=h*b

The equation for the area of a trapezoid is one half the sum of the top t and bottom b times the height h;

A=h*[t+b]/2

The area of a triangle is equal to one half of the base b times the height h;
A = .5 * b * h

Some fins are elliptically shaped. For an ellipse with a semi-axis a and semi-axis b, the area is given by:

A = pi * a * b

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2/15/13 Area

where pi is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle and is equal to 3.1415. A special case of the ellipse is a
circle, in which the semi-axis is equal to the radius r. The area of a circle is:

A = pi * r^2

If the root of an elliptical fin is given by cr and the distance from the root to the tip is given by ct, the area of the fin is:

A = pi * cr *ct

For a compound configuration like the Space Shuttle, you have to break up the wing into simple shapes which you can
compute, and then add them together.

Activities:

Guided Tours

Parts of an Airplane:
Wings:

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