FLYING PAPER
Concepts Blow on a strip of paper to understand how airplanes fly.
• Force and motion
Icon © The Noun Project; Stephen Borengasser
• Lift SETUP: Cut a 5-by-20-cm (2-by-8-in.) drooping end will rise up and
• Weight strip of notebook paper for each child. flutter. The end of the paper strip
is flying.
Materials 1. Hold up a strip of paper. Ask children
if it can fly. Some children may 4. Encourage children to try to
• Notebook paper
mention paper airplanes. Tell them make their paper strips fly too.
• Scissors
they are correct, but then ask if they
know why paper airplanes can fly.
2. Distribute the paper strips to
children. Tell them the strips will help
them understand how airplanes fly.
3. Demonstrate this step for children.
Hold the paper by its edges at one
end. Bring that end to your mouth.
The other end of the paper will
droop downward. Next, blow sharply
right over the top of the paper. The
36 5-Minute Science © Shearer & Vogt, Scholastic Inc.
FLYING PAPER
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• What does the paper strip do when you blow over Moving air over the top of the wings produces a small drop
the paper? The end of the paper rises up and flutters. in air pressure that adds to the airplane’s lift.
• What does the paper strip do after you stop blowing? The paper strip gets lift when you blow air over its top. The
The paper droops again. air pressure above the strip decreases, and air from below
then pushes the strip upward. It actually pushes too much so
FYI that the strip’s end gets into the air stream. The stream pushes
Moving air causes things to fly. Airplanes use engines to push the strip back down. The air below pushes the strip back up
them rapidly through the air. Birds do the same by flapping and so on. This causes the strip to flutter.
their wings. As airplanes travel forward, air flows rapidly over
the top and under the bottom of their wings. This produces
lift. Lift is an upward force acting on the airplane. If this force EX TR A
is greater than the airplane’s weight, the airplane lifts off the Have children make paper-bag masks.
ground and flies. The effect of air moving under a wing is easy Cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth and
to understand. The wing is tilted slightly, forcing the air moving add a paper-strip tongue to the mouth.
under it downward. This exerts an equal and opposite lifting Children will have fun using lift to make
force. This is Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion at work. fluttering tongues.