Roto-coptor Investigation

Introduction:

The experiment that we are going to do today simulates helicopter flight. Helicopter manufacturers are always trying to improve the design of helicopters to ensure that if, unfortunately, something should happen and a helicopter is going to crash, survival of the occupants could be made more likely.

One way to do this is to increase the amount of time the helicopter remains in the air so it will not crash too quickly and with less force. Therein lies the problem, how do you make helicopters stay in the air longer as the fall?

We are going to make roto-copters out of stiff paper to simulate helicopter crashes. The design plan is given below. You need to think of one variable, which may effect the “air-time” of the rotocopter. You need to make sure you run at least 5 trials for each variable you change. Before you do any tests, you should make your hypothesis (and prediction).

Purpose:

To design and construct a rotocopter that will take the longest time to fall to the ground from at least 2 m above the ground.

Materials:

-construction paper or poster board

-pencil

-ruler/meter stick

-paper clips

-scissors

-stopwatch

Procedure:

  1. Brainstorm as many ideas as you can about how rotocopters behave when they are dropped.
  2. Consider a few possible designs and make rough sketches of them
  3. Select the design that you think will work best. Check to make sure it meets all the design criteria.
  4. Make a detailed sketch of your selected design. Label the rotor, the stabilizer, and their dimensions (measurements), as well as the position and number of paper clips you will use. Show your design to your teacher.
  5. Use the materials provided to build your rotocopter design.
  6. Drop the rotocopter from at least 2 m and time how long it takes to reach the ground. Record the results in a table like this one.

Variable Changed / Time in trial #1 / Time in trial #2 / Time in trial #3 / Time in trial #4 / Time in trial #5 / Average Time / Average Speed
  1. Calculate the average time for the rotocopter to fall to the ground.
  2. Calculate the average speed for the rotocopter using the formula below.

Average speed = height of release (m)

average time it took to fall (s)

Discussion Questions

Answer the following questions in FULL SENTENCES.

1. a) State the Independent variable in your experiment.

b) State the Dependent variable in your experiment.

c) What were your control variables in your experiment.

2. What effect did the independent variable have on the average speed of the roto-copter.

3. a) Explain why you chose only one variable to test during the experiment.

b) List 3 variables that you controlled during this experiment.

4. Why was it important to run more than one trial for each roto-copter?

5. All experiments contain sources of error. List 2 sources of error that existed in your experiment that might have given you poor data.

6. What could you have improved on to make the experiment more successful?

Conclusion

Write a statement that accepts or rejects your hypothesis.

Design Criteria

  1. Your roto-copter must be designed and built by a team of students (2-3).
  2. You roto-copter must withstand five drops.
  3. The roto-copter should be no more than 30 cm long and more than 10 cm wide.
  4. The stabilizer of your rotocopter must be no more than 10 cm wide.
  5. You must use at least one paper clip.
  6. You must draw a clearly labeled sketch before you begin to construct your rotocopter.

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SNC1D: Scientific Investigation Skills