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Name: Date: Period:

: ________________

Of 3 different lengths of rotor wings

on a paper helicopter (long, medium,

short), the longest wing will have the

longest flight time when dropped

from a height of 3 meters.

Does the length of the rotor

wing of a paper helicopter

affect its flight time?

- Rotor wings increase air friction,

- I have observed different kinds

of helicopter rotors

1) Cut out the provided helicopter

templates then fold and attach

a paperclip to the bottom;

2) Drop each helicopter from 3

meters high;

3) Record the time it takes to

descend (or fall) with a

stopwatch and record the time

in seconds in the data table;

4) Repeat for 3 trials for each

wing length.

the lengths of the rotor wing

the time of descent

the same drop height, same paper

Paper Helicopter Investigation


long

medium

short

2.12

2.09

1.60

2.25

2.06

1.53

2.19

2.10

1.56

2.19 seconds

2.08 seconds

1.56 seconds

seconds

Rotor Wing Experiment

Y

X

Y Rotor Wing Length

Long Medium Short

Flig

ht

Tim

e (descent)

seconds

1.00

1.10

1.20

2.0

1.30 1.40

1.50

1.60

1.70

1.80 1.90

2.00

2.10

2.20

2.30

2.19

2.08

1.56


1) The question was, "does the length of the rotor wing of a paper helicopter

affect its flight time?

2) My hypothesis is that of 3 different lengths of rotor wings on a paper

helicopter (long, medium, short,) the longest wing will have the longest flight

time when dropped from a height of 3 meters high.

3) The average flight time of 3 trials of each rotor wing device shows that the

longest wing stayed in the air for 2.19 seconds, the medium length 2.08 seconds,

and the short length wing for 1.56 seconds.

4) Based on the data, my hypothesis is supported. I can infer that by providing

more surface area on a rotor wing, this will increase its amount of air friction

thus allowing it to stay in the air longer.

5) I did my best to maintain good constants for my experiment, such as using the

same type of paper and dropping from the same height. However, I noticed

that on each rotor wing device from the provided template that the body of

the paper helicopter also changed in size. So, the body of the helicopters

should have stayed the same size with only the wing length changing.

6) The one variable I changed for my helicopter lab was the rotor wing length

(independent variable). I measured the flight time of each rotor wing device and

averaged the 3 trials (dependent variable.) After analyzing my data, the

evidence supported my hypothesis that the longest rotor wing length of a

paper helicopter would provide the most flight time due to the increased

surface area of the wing.


1) Think critically about what happened during your investigation. What other factors influenced

the experiment or could have influenced it? 2) Describe an experiment you could do to test one of the other factors you listed in #1. Write a

problem statement, the variable (independent / dependent / control), a hypothesis, and an outline of a procedure.

I wonder if the ceiling fan or air conditioner affected the flight

of the paper copters. I also wonder if I could change my

variable to have different angles for the rotor wings or

bending the tips of the wings up or down.

lab report template - · pdf fileon a paper helicopter (long, medium, ... science lab report...

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