(No Name) 10-10-13

610 Science
The Helicopter Experiment
Introduction:
What is air resistance & force? Air resistance is a frictional force that is created. Force is
a push or a pull towards an object that is affected by the amount of air resistance. This is
involved with The Helicopter Experiment. If more air resistance is created with the mass of the
paperclips, this might mean that more force will be able to push the helicopter down faster. This
is what the experiment is about.
Basically, the experiment is to see the effects of the helicopter will paperclips. We will see
if more or less paperclips will make the helicopter go faster because of the weight/mass. What is
weight/mass? Its the amount of heaviness of/in something. Also, weight & mass affects air
resistance.

Research Question:
How will increasing the helicopters mass by using paperclips affect how the helicopter
falls?
Hypothesis:
If we attach paperclips to the helicopter, then the increased weight will make it drop faster
because it decreases the amount of air resistance.
Materials:
1) One stopwatch
2) One pair of scissors
3) One pencil
4) One notebook
5) One chair
6) One sheet of copy paper
7) One computer
8) One printer
9) One partner
10) Three paperclips
Procedure:
1) Go online and search helicopter cut out. Print out this sheet.
2) On the bottom, there are two dotted lines. Cut them out, and fold them horizontally.
3) On the top, there is a line going through the middle. Cut the line. Bend one flap one
direction, while the other flap bends to the other one.
4) On the bottom, bend the helicopter about 1cm.
5) Stand on your chair and drop the helicopter down without paperclips. Start the
stopwatch once you drop the helicopter. Once it touches the floor, stop it. Record the
time in your notebook. Continue this 5 times at around the same height, then find the
average of those five times. A chart could be used. Also decide which one of you
(you & your partner) will drop the helicopter now and then.
6) Then add 1 paperclip to the bottom of the helicopter. Repeat the procedure on step
five, and then record your data with the average.
7) Add another paperclip to the bottom of the helicopter to have 2 paperclips attached to
it. Repeat the procedure on step five again, and then record the data with the average.
8) Add the last paperclip to the bottom of the helicopter to have 3 paperclips attached to
it. Repeat the procedure on step five, and then record the data with the average. Write
down what you noticed when the amount of paperclips increased, and why.
Data:

Trial Time in seconds:
0 paperclips
Time in seconds:
1 paperclip
Time in seconds:
2 paperclips
Time in seconds:
3 paperclips
1 2.10 sec. 0.57 sec. 0.95 sec. 0.66 sec.
2 2.60 sec. 1.07 sec. 0.88 sec. 0.45 sec.
3 2.69 sec. 0.97 sec. 0.92 sec. 0.50 sec.
4 2.58 sec. 1.13 sec. 0.66 sec. 0.56 sec.
5 2.60 sec. 1.02 sec. 0.59 sec. 0.40 sec.
Average
Time in Seconds
2.514 sec. 0.952 sec. 0.8 sec. 0.514 sec.


Data Analysis:
An observation seen is that sometimes, the amount of seconds for each trial is different.
The reason is because the height couldve changed a bit since no one can tell the exact height
where the helicopter was dropped from. Another observation seen is that the force used in a
partnership was different since the partner uses more or less force than others. Additionally, a
partner was pressing the stop watch at the wrong time, to get a lower/higher time than average.
A noticing for the additional paperclips added is that the speed increases because of extra
mass to decrease air resistance, so the paperclips is an Independent Variable. This causes the
time in seconds to be shorter than the 0 paperclips added, than when the paperclips were added.
For example, Trial 1 with 0 paperclips dropped is 2.10 seconds, while Trial 1 for 3 paperclips
dropped is 0.66 seconds. This matches with the hypothesis of If we attach paperclips to the
helicopter, then the increased weight will make it drop faster because it decreases the amount of
air resistance.
Conclusion:
This experiment was to see if the mass from paperclips affects the amount of time when
the helicopter drops. It did affect the time, which supported my hypothesis. A noticing of other
groups is that some of them were taller than their partners, which gives a slightly different result
when the helicopter was dropped. Furthermore, the paperclips placed were in directions that
either faced horizontally or vertically.
In the future of another experiment, the height should try to be kept the same during all
trials by matching the helicopter with the height of something else. Another beneficial change is
to make sure that the stop watch matches the time when the helicopter starts to drop and when it
touches the ground, without making mistakes. This could be done by saying 3, 2, 1, and once the
person with the stop watch says 1, the person presses on the stop watch while (at the same time)
the other person in the partnership drops it. A third beneficial change that could be made is that
some parts of the helicopter was poorly creased, while some parts werent. This effects the
helicopter since the creases on the paper make the flaps straighter1, to make it fall faster/slower.