Hi, good morning! My name is Sam Connolly,
and I'm coming to you live from my very
own living room here. The Museum and Theatre
is quite clearly closed, but that doesn't
mean that you can't still play and learn
and explore. And so today I'm here and
I'm gonna be talking to you about flight. So flight has been something that people
have been exploring for thousands and
thousands of years. And way before we had
airplanes, people were thinking about how
to make sure that something- or how to
make something move through the air. So
any guesses, what do you think people
used to play around with? What do you
think that was the first thing that
people used to think about airplanes?
I'll give you a hint: it's lighter than
air, but not by much. Any guesses? You
probably figured it out today we're
gonna be playing around with paper
airplanes! And you might think, "Well,
that's pretty simple." And a lot of people
have made paper airplanes, but like I
said they've been very important to all
of us learning about how flight works.
And people did you know sometimes people
would make fun of these paper
airplane experts, because they thought
that we would never be able to get in
the air. But in fact we did! So when
you're making and when you're playing
today, keep that in mind:
your inventions and your exploration
might lead to something much bigger one
day. So I'm not gonna get into folds for
paper airplanes but I am gonna link
something down below - there's tons and
tons of resources - but I want to give you
a little bit of background info, so when
you're making your airplanes you can
explore a little bit and learn. When
you're making your observations, you can
kind of figure out what you want your
goals to be. And if you have a little
bit of background you can troubleshoot
if something isn't going right. So paper
is definitely...[huffs] Well, in order for
something to fly, we want it to be able
to move through air, right? And paper
is definitely heavier than air. So if I
drop my paper airplane it's going to
fall to the ground, right? So air is made
up of molecules; you know that if you were
at my marshmallows the other day. Molecules are teeny-tiny little, little
things all throughout the air, all throughout, um. Even though we can't see them we know
that they're made up of something, right?
Teeny-tiny little molecules. And they're
always pushing on us, all the time, just a
little bit, and that's called "air
pressure". We know that there's something,
we know that they're made up of stuff. So
in order to get our airplane up in the
sky, we want to be able to use those
molecules to our advantage. Because we
already know we have a disadvantage,
right? We know our paper is heavier than the
air, so it's gonna wanna fall. So how
can we use those molecules to our
advantage? Alright. So we've already
talked, we've gotta talk about forces. And
we've got two forces that I want you
to think about so the first one is:
gravity. So that's the weight of your
paper, and that's gonna make it fall. But
we also have something else to work with
us. So once you've got your paper
airplane, I want you to think about the
shapes that we've got. So which shapes
do you see? And you'll notice that when you
fold it, you've also got different
weights. So I've got a little bit more
folds up here which is gonna make it
heavier, and a little bit lighter over
here- a little bit less up here, which is
gonna make it lighter. So when something is
moving through air, yes, it's gonna be
falling downward. But there's also
something called "lift" which is gonna be
pushing it up. So, when an object is
moving through something that's flowing
around it - so I want you to imagine those
air molecules moving all around it - it
creates something called lift. So already
we've got something working against our
gravity. So. We need to get it moving
though. And what we need to do to get it
moving is we're gonna give it a little
bit of thrust, right? So the thrust for
your air- paper airplane is when you're
gonna push it through the air. And that's
gonna give it the forward motion. But
then there's something else working
against it the other way, and that is the
drag. So these same principles apply to
when you're in water. Imagine when you're,
like, walking through water and your
whole body, it's like heavy, you have to
pull yourself through: that's the drag.
Because we know air molecules are made
up of stuff, you have to push and pull
through them. Imagine like when you're moving in a foam pit? so
your plane has to move- has drag that's
gonna be pulling it back that way. Our
thrust, our force, is gonna push it this
way. And then remember we've got weight -
gravity - going down, but we also have lift
which is that perpendicular force that's
gonna help it go upward. So you want to
use all of these things to be thinking
about your airplane today. Hi, Thomas and
Ursula! How you guys doing? Good morning!
So paper- we know real airplanes have a
really special kind of thrust that keeps
them going for a long time. And that's an
engine that's in the back. Today you're
gonna be using your muscles... maybe you
want to use a different kind of engine,
though. Maybe you have a fan at your
house that you want to keep the air
flowing around your plane, maybe that
would affect how long it would fly. But
that was how, um, long ago, paper airplane
artists got a little bit frustrated,
because they couldn't get... their plane
had a certain limit to how long it could
stay in the air. So they figured out if
you had a motor on the end you could
keep it up for longer. So I was thinking
today, because I didn't have a motor on
the end of my plane, what were some ways
that I could play around with my plane
landing in certain places? So there are a
lot of trick airplanes where people,
trick airplane videos where people are
trying to get their airplanes in certain
locations. And so I played around with
that a little bit today. Maybe you want
your airplane to go to a certain spot in
your house.
I was also measuring distance. If you don't
have a tape measure, string or, like, this
is like just a piece of ribbon, can help
you measure distance. And then another
thing I played around with was - and you
probably can't see it behind me because
it's very see-through - I actually have a
piece of fishing wire that goes from one
end of my wall all the way down to the
other end and I've actually attached a
paper airplane that I made here. So you
can make certain tracks for your airplanes to
move along, and that'll keep them - keep
that weight - up, right? I don't have to
worry about it hitting the ground. So I
want you to imagine today,
when you're making your paper airplanes,
if they do fall, where are they falling?
Maybe they have to get somewhere. Maybe
they have a secret message inside of
them! So I have to say, that's probably my
favorite thing to do with paper airplanes,
is write secret messages inside of
them. And maybe you do figure out a way
to keep your airplane up forever! If you
do, share it down below. If you don't!
Share it down below too. And see if you
can figure out what shapes work the best.
So I'm gonna link below - or maybe Reba
already has - there's a site that I love
to use for paper airplanes, because it
gives you different shapes. There's easy
ones and harder ones to do, and it'll
actually tell you what they're best for.
So if they're best for distance, if
they're best for speed, if they're best
for tricks - making them spin around. So
first you want to decide what you want
your paper airplane to do, and then you
want to try to pick a design! Maybe you
make your own design today. And that
could be something neat you do too!
Alright guys! Well that's what I've got
today - have fun exploring flight, and
don't forget that you are doing real
science when you are playing today.
Alright. Take care. I'll see you guys
tomorrow, bye!
