Paper Airplanes

Mathematics Standard Level

Internal Assessment - Exploration

How does the body length of a paper airplane affect how far it would travel?

Candidate Name: Akinori Miura

Candidate Number:

School: The International School of Phnom Penh

Exam Session: May 2015

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Aim 4

Rationale 4

Method 4

Results and Evaluation of Results 6

Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

Introduction

The research question to this exploration will be “How does the body length of a paper airplane affect how far it would travel?” Paper airplanes are simple and fun to make and play with. They have been an integral part in my childhood as well as many children. I have enjoyed playing with these simple toys from an early age and today I still see myself playing with them. Flight has also been an integral part of my childhood and it is one of the things I love to view.

Paper airplanes are the simplest forms of a glider . There are 3 forces that act on a glider when it is in flight, lift, weight and drag. The lift is caused by the air moving over and under the wing’s of the paper airplane, the drag is caused by the movement the paper airplane, as it moves through the air, and this is generally caused by air resistance . Weight is the force that

The exploration has shown that with an increase in the length of a paper plane the distance would increase, but only to a certain point and at this point drag would overcome the lift and then the longer paper plane would begin to lose its distance flown. The parabola and function has shown that there is a maximum point where theoretically it is the best length for the body of the plane, and by using extrapolation I have also reinforced my hypothesis. The ideal length of the paper plane would be 17.3