Aerodynamics

Use this fact sheet to find out what makes things fly with this fact sheet on aerodynamics.

Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...

Examples and practice questions will help real-life understanding of the Principle of Moments concept. These great slides define the types of levers and pivots, and then give examples of the typical seesaw situations that help the...

Does space have its own gravity? And, if so, why do astronauts just float around in the space station? Science sleuths examine the forces acting upon astronauts in the International Space Station with help from the narrator. He...

Get the class up and going with a lesson that discusses how airplane wings provide lift. Pupils use their knowledge of Bernoulli's Principle to develop an explanation of how it creates lift on airplane wings.

Do not let friction drag you down! The 11th segment in a series of 22 focuses on the fourth force acting upon an airplane—drag. Pupils learn about the effects and causes of drag.

Demonstrate lift to the class that is studying aerodynamics. In the stream of air produced by a blow dryer, little physicists place a wad of tissue paper and a spherical figure to compare. Or, if you have a vacuum cleaner and beach ball,...

Students design, revise and construct a method for protecting an egg from cracking when it is dropped from a height. They work in small groups to develop their protection method and then collect and analyze data as a class when each...

Zog is introduced to Newton's basic laws of motion. By observing objects on earth and in space, Zog learns that nothing can start moving, speed up, slow down, change direction or stop unless a force is applied to it -- even if the force...

The application of engineering principles is explored in the creation of mobiles. As students create their own mobiles, they take into consideration the forces of gravity and convection air currents. They learn how an understanding of...