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Title: Roto-Copter Lab Activity Objectives: Students will be able to explain the dynamics of how a helicopter works

and will know who designed the first helicopter. (Igor I. Silorsky)

Safety: Students showed be careful with the scissors (no running with them, no tossing
them to others, etc) They should be careful of getting paper cuts while folding the paper helicopters. Students should be careful while standing on the chair while playing the Roto-Target game.

Time Required: 30 minutes Supplies:


Roto-copter pattern Pencil Scissors Paper clips Crayons or markers Newspaper Cereal bowl Sturdy chair

Procedures:

1. Students should cut the roto-copter pattern along the solid lines only.

2. Fold A toward you and fold B away from you. (fold on dotted lines)

3. Fold C and D over each other so they overlap. (fold on dotted lines)

4. Fold the bottom up and put a paperclip on it. (fold on dotted lines)

5. Hold the Roto-copter by the paper clip. Throw it like a baseball, as high and as far
as you can. It will spin to the floor. You can also stand on a chair or on the stairs and drop it. Ask a grown-up if you can drop it out the window.

6. If you want, you can use crayons or markers to color your Roto-copter before you
fold it. The colors will blur together when it spins.

7.Follow-up questions or activity:


Did you notice which way your copter was spinning? Clockwise or counter-clockwise? How do you think you could get the copter to spin in the other direction?

Resources: http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/roto-copter.html

What is happening?
When the copter falls, air pushes up against the blades, bending them up just a little. When air pushes upward on the slanted blade, some of that thrust becomes a sideways, or horizontal, push. Why doesnt the copter simply move sideways through the air? Thats because there are two blades, each getting the same push, but in opposite directions. The two opposing thrusts work together to cause the toy to spin.

ROTO-TARGET GAME Make three Roto-Copters for each person. Use a marker to draw a 1-foot circle on a piece of newspaper. Put a cereal bowl in the middle of the circle. The circle is the target area and the bowl is the bulls-eye. Take turns standing on a chair at the edge of the newspaper and dropping your Roto-Copters. They get 3 points for a bulls eye, 2 points for a copter inside the circle, and 1 point for just hitting the newspaper.

ANSWER TO Q.7 To get the copter to spin in the opposite direction you just bend the blades in the opposite direction. If blade A was bent forward---bend it backwards. If blade B was bent backward---bend it forwards.

Who invented the helicopter?


Igor Sikorsky created the first practical helicopter in 1939. Even though he died in 1972, his aviation company, Sikorsky Aircraft, continues to develop aviation products to this day.

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