Now, I'm going to do this right, because: A) I'm really bored, and B) I think it's funny. So. Here's the experimental log.
The Great Paper Airplane Race
- Goal: To see which airplane flies furthest
- Necessary Materials:
- Two (2) scouting letters, one each from Harvard and from Yale (each letter having two (2) pages)
- Two (2) plain sheets of printer-quality paper
- One (1) kitchen scale
- One (1) tape measure
- One (1) large, open basement in which to fly the planes.
- Procedure
- Weigh all sheets of paper, to determine if there is a bias towards either of the schools or the control. Not for any real reason, just for kicks.
- Take one (1) sheet from each scouting letter and one (1) sheet of regular printer paper, and fold all three sheets into a normal paper airplane, like so.
- Take the remaining sheets of paper and fold them into a different design of airplane. (I chose a slightly modified version of the Dart, the difference being that I folded the wings to give them a larger surface-area to weight ratio)
- Carefully throw all six paper airplanes across the basement.
- Measure after each set of throws and see which airplanes went furthest.
- Results
- (I'm going to record my thoughts here - bad form, I know)
- Harvard's paper weighs in at .010 pounds per sheet, while Yale weighs .015 lbs each and printer paper weighs again a light .010 lbs. This may result in a bias against Yale. Sorry, Yale.
- So, from a steady position kneeling on my couch and leaning over the back, I start launching paper airplanes. First up were the normal planes.
- Test One (Normal planes)
- Yale went first, with an unfortunate distance of ten feet, and an odd spin as it fell to the ground. Poor show, Yale
- Harvard did the exact same thing, however, with a worse showing of six feet.
- The control went last, and did a loop before landing upside down, a somewhat better fifteen feet away.
- At this point, I realized I'd folded the planes oddly, a mistest was called, and time was taken to correct their wings.
- Test One-B
- Harvard was thrown again, with better results, but was batted from the air by a rogue cat before the flight was completed. Second mistest called.
- Test One-C
- Harvard successfully flew twenty feet, with a graceful twirl and upright landing
- Yale successfully flew a surprising twenty-four feet, with a smooth landing and subsequent skid
- The control went roughly twenty feet, but ran into a box before it could skid further.
- Test Two (Dart planes)
- After numerous mistests, the causes of which included but were not limited to: planes circling around and flying essentially negative feet, planes falling open and drifting to the ground mid-flight, another rogue cat, and a plane circling around and hitting me in the head, a stapler was procured and one (1) staple was added to the tail of each of the three dart planes, for structural support
- Harvard flew a disappointing fourteen feet and landed upside down.
- Yale flew a somewhat better twenty feet, landed upside down, and pulled a 180 degree spin upon landing.
- The control did a nosedive, only flew eight feet.
- Discussion
- I should probably have thrown the planes several more times, just to make sure I achieved scientific rigour, but as the point of this experiment was mostly to entertain myself for an evening rather than actually prove anything, I'm not going to.
- Mean Distance Flown
- Harvard: seventeen feet
- Yale: twenty-two feet
- Control: fourteen feet
- I'm thinking that the control's paper, not being of the nice, high-quality, quite-possibly-parchment stuff that the colleges' paper was, didn't have quite the lift that they did. Or maybe I just threw it weird. I don't know.
- Conclusion
- Yale wins!
So much for choosing what elite school I want to be rejected from in a mature, adult fashion. Huzzah for paper airplanes!
