How to Make a Paper Airplane/Science Behind Paper Airplanes

There are a lot of hard concepts to get your head around how a paper air plane can fly through the air. An important vocabulary word is force. This is something that exerts pressure or pull on another object. A paper airplane needs a push or a force to take off when it is thrown into the air. That push is an example of a thrust force. Air is traveling over and under the wings of the aircraft as it moves ahead, giving it a force known as lift. The paper airplane will have a good, long flight if it has adequate propulsion and has well-designed wings.

However, a paper airplane can return to Earth for reasons other than a lack of thrust and inadequate wing design. The air pushes up against a paper plane as it flies through the air, slowing it down. We refer to this force as drag. Consider placing your hand outside the window of a moving car to consider drag. Drag is the force of the air forcing your hand back as you advance. Finally, the paper plane's weight impacts its flight and causes it to land. The force of Earth's gravity pulling on the paper airplane is known as weight. The interaction of all four of these forces thrust, lift, drag, and weight all make an impact on a paper airplane.

Another important word used for paper airplanes is aerodynamics. The range and ease of flight of a paper airplane are both governed by its aerodynamics. The plane's aerodynamics must have minimum drag and be extremely light to defy gravity. The forces of lift and propulsion are also utilized by paper aircraft. Paper airplanes will fly farther when the balance of these four forces is used.