1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,120
Wow! Let me tell you, that was a great trip visiting Hooten-Gibson at the Dare County

2
00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:11,320
Airport in North Carolina. But you know, the variables of being outside in the wind and

3
00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:15,560
the rain can really get to you, and I'm glad to be back here in the Connect studio.

4
00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:21,720
Well, as Mike has said, it is today's students that will become NASA's future researchers.

5
00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:26,520
So let's go visit Jones Magnet Middle School in Hampton, Virginia, where students are investigating

6
00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:32,360
an aeronautical challenge involving surface area and glide ratio. Follow along, and when

7
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:37,120
we come back, we'll look at the data collected by these students, and then you, my friends,

8
00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:41,920
will be challenged to make your own analysis and predictions based upon their results.

9
00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:50,240
Hi, we're students from Jones Magnet Middle School in Hampton, Virginia. We were asked

10
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:55,200
to investigate the glide ratio for different model airplanes designed to determine which

11
00:00:55,200 --> 00:01:00,480
design provides the best glide ratio. The glide ratio of a plane describes the forward

12
00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:07,360
distance flown per drop in altitude and the absence of power and wind. For example, a

13
00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:12,520
three-to-one ratio means that if you are one mile up, you better be within three miles

14
00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:17,920
of the airport. Ms. Tominak and Ms. Farnwell, our science and math teachers, divided our

15
00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:23,400
class into four teams. The blue team, the red team, the yellow team, and the white team.

16
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:30,040
Each team will fly a different design. To do our experiment, we used the following materials.

17
00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:36,920
Copy your paper. We used different colors to identify each team. We also used glue,

18
00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:42,760
a meter stick, and a tape measure. Each team was asked to select one design from the four

19
00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:49,840
patterns provided to us by NASA Langley. The shapes included the egret, the flex, the basic

20
00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:55,760
square, and the condor. Each team constructs a different model and calculates the total

21
00:01:55,760 --> 00:02:01,840
area of the paper used in creating the model. Next, we figure how much of the total area

22
00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:08,960
is actually devoted to the airplane's wing. Now, we're ready to run our flight test. For

23
00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:14,520
our baseline test, we decide to launch the airplane at two and two-tenths meters from

24
00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:21,320
the ground. This becomes the plane's flight altitude. Our four groups conduct ten test

25
00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:27,960
flights from this flight altitude. We're careful to launch each flight test from the same altitude

26
00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:33,560
and to be as consistent as possible in the force used to launch the airplane. We then

27
00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:39,480
measure the distance the plane goes from launch point to where it first touches the ground.

28
00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:45,360
We take our data, order it from shortest to longest distances, and then calculate the

29
00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:51,120
median and the mean for the data. We are now ready to compute the glide ratios for the

30
00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:57,920
shortest distance, the longest distance, the median, and the mean. Using the formula, horizontal

31
00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:02,960
distance divided by the change in altitude, we're ready to answer the question, which

32
00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:07,720
of the glide ratios that you have computed is the best one to use in describing your

33
00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:08,840
plane's glide ratio.