Name Rishabh Roy Date 9/1/23

Period 4th Pd.

Descent of a Paper Helicopter

BACKGROUND: The scientific method involves the investigation of a question or

problem by setting up an experiment to test a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a statement of
what a student thinks will happen as a result of the experiment.

OBJECTIVE: Students will conduct an experiment to determine which variable will

affect the descent of a paper helicopter. ie Rotor length, rotor width, body length, body
width, or weight.

MATERIALS:
■ Paper
■ Paper clip
■ Scissors
■ Stopwatch
■ Calculator

PROCEDURE:
Design your own procedure. The procedure should show how to make the helicopter
and how to complete testing. Hint-you will need pictures or drawings to show correct
way to make your helicopter.

1
 Descent of a Paper Helicopter—Lab Report
PROBLEM/QUESTION (what you investigated in your experiment):

HYPOTHESIS (a single sentence explaining what you think will happen between the variables in the
experiment): Remember (If/Then/Because)

MATERIALS (list the materials you will use to perform the experiment):

VARIABLES:
a) Independent (Manipulated) (what you will be changing): Rotor Length to 15 cm

Flight Time
b) Dependent (Responding) (what will respond to the change):

c) Control (what must remain the same): Rotor width, Body width, Body length, Handle width, Handle length, same type
of paper.

DESCRIPTION OF EXPERIMENT (one or two sentences describing your experiment):

My partner and I had decided that our IV would be to change rotors to 15 cm from the original 12 cm on Mr.Golba's
control helicopter. We think that longer rotors will grab more air and stay in flight longer.

DATA:
Number of Seconds for each Descent

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3

Trials
1

2
OBSERVATIONS (difficulties with or knowledge gained during your experiment, or modifications to
your procedure):

The procedure we followed completely, and the only difficulty we had was that our helicopter did not spin as much in 3

out of 5 trials we did. It kind of flopped around in the air, still producing good results. I think that it was because our

rotors were not held straight and it just did its own thing. Having fixed rotors would have helped and I learned that

floppy rotors do no good.

Graph:
Graph your data and the class data. Be sure to label your axes, use a consistent interval, and title your
graph. You will be graphing the average for each group.