
When a plane, paper or otherwise is in flight there are four
main forces that are key in keeping it up in the air:
Thrust: this is
the driving force behind the motion of a plane, the force we apply when we
launch our beautiful creations at the nearest head/doorway. This pushes forward
from the back of the plane and without it the planes simply wouldn't move.
Drag: This is the
force that acts backwards on the plane as its mighty nose barges through the
multitude of air particles in the way. Due to their very small surface area
this tends not to be so much of a problem for paper planes as….
Lift: Now this is
a more complex thing, the wings on any professionally made plane are created to
maximise lift by curving them and angling slightly upwards as shown, but any
sort of wing can achieve it as it is the basic principal that as an object
flies through the air, if it is aerodynamic and provides enough thrust then the
air underneath the wings should be angled downwards and as an equal and
opposite reaction the plane is forced upwards, hence the flaps on real planes,
paper planes however do not have a constant thrust so this force only lasts a
small amount of time before gravity does its thing.
Well that’s it for this week and I can say I was once again
shocked by the complex forces that we have learnt to master even with inventions
made of paper. Human ingenuity really is an incredible thing, I really appreciate everyone who reads this, it's great to know that other people are curious like me, see ya. :)
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