Cayley, Wright, and the four forces of flight - Lesson 5

manna moment

Philippians 2:3-8-  "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Noah Webster's (1828) American Dictionary of the English Language defines humble as 'having a low opinion of one's self and a deep sense of unworthiness in the sight of God."  Alternatively, humility is defined as "freedom from pride and arrogance."

When faced with a larger-than-self task, it is important to:
1.  Recognize that the task is larger than one person can accomplish.
2.  Admit that others have or have had good ideas about how to accomplish such a task.
3.  Be humble in considering others ideas in order to accomplish the larger task at hand.

Wilbur has a sense of humility when requesting help fro the Smithsonian on all the information about flight.  he was not assuming he would solve the problem but might merely add to the research on the subject in hopes of someone one day being able to accomplish controlled flight.  Only the LORD knew that it would be Wilbur and Orville who would discover and accomplish so great a feat.  Yet it was only possible by having access to those who went before them.  Wilbur and Orville's acknowledgement of this is part of having humility.  Jesus, who was with God in the beginning, who is the WORD made flesh, and is King had an attitude of humility, never sought equality with God, emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant and was obedient to death on a cross to grant us salvation from sin.  In all our endeavors, let us be humble before God and others.

Four Forces of Flight:  Are lift and gravity competing forces?

In order to investigate whether the force of gravity and the force of lift are opposing, we set up a simple activity.
With a piece of copy paper in between two flat hands horizontally, they spun around.  Once they were spinning, they would remove their bottom hand to see what would happen and which forces would be at work.
We then observed what happened with they slowed down with the bottom hand still removed.
Finally, we spun around and removed our top hand to see what would happen.

Here is our Evidence-based Explanation:  Lift and gravity are competing forces because they balance each other.  The balancing of these forces allows the paper to remain on the bottom of the hand while spinning.  As soon as the air needed for lift is gone when you stop spinning, the force of gravity exceeds lift and the paper falls to the floor.

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Four Forces of Flight:  Are Thrust and drag competing forces?

For this investigation, we used thin books like readers.  Holding the reader flat vertically between your hands, they would spin.  Once they are spinning they would remove their front hand.  The book would remain on the back hand while thrust and drag were balanced.  As soon as they began to slow down the reader would fall to the ground as thrust and drag became unbalanced and gravity took over.

Paper Gliders

With the knowledge of the four forces of flight, I had the students make paper gliders to model the four forces of flight.  There are two investigations that they can choose from, they can either build a glider to see how far it can fly OR they can build a glider that when given thrust hits a specified spot on the wall, most accurate.

There are a bunch of ways of making a paper glider.  I encouraged the students to do some research themselves to figure out which way to fold their paper would bring about the furthest distance or the most accurate paper glider.

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how do airplanes fly

Here is a link to the video about how airplanes fly.  How Do Airplanes Fly
There is a video guide on page 30 of the student guidebook that you can find in the 12 lesson bundle under Lesson 5, or you can purchase just Lesson 5 below too.

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