How one can demonstrate the working of an elevator: Take a 3 by 5 card and fold a 1-inch section along edge upward at a 45-degree angle. Paste the card, along its short center line, to a piece of balsa wood about 10 inches long. Balance the wood with the attached card on a round pencil, like a seesaw. Mark this “balance” point and push it straight in through the balsa so that it is parallel to the card.
Hold the pin lightly between the thumb and forefinger of both hands. Hold the balsa wood in front of your mouth with the card farthest away. Now when you blow with all your might, the raised portion of the index card acts like a plane’s elevator. The front end of the balsa wood nearest your mouth will move upward, like the nose of plane.
The seesaw effect in the above experiment is the result of gravity. The force of gravity acts upon the total weight. Weight pulls the object downward because of the gravity. The force of gravity is always pulling all objects on or near the earth toward the center. Lift acts upward against the downward force of weight. Lift is derived mainly from the flow of air over the object. Air is mainly a mixture of two gases, oxygen and nitrogen. We live in a sea of air weighing billions of tons which hugs the earth because gravity is constantly pulling down upon it. Without the atmosphere and the pressure it exerts on everything it touches, we could not fly.
Take a balloon and inflate it, then let it go, the air inside the balloon will escape, as it rushes out, the balloon flies through the air. This illustrates the principle which makes the jets fly. It is also an example of Newton’s third law of motion, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite action reaction.” As the air rushes out the back, the balloon goes forward. There are several types of jet engines and they all work on the same principle. The jet plane uses air to give it forward motion or thrust.
A kite is a heavier-than-air device that is flown on the end of a string, line or rope and is kept aloft by forces created by wind pressure.
For our purpose, lets consider kites to be heavier-than-air devices, they weigh more than the air they displace. In order to stay aloft on the end of the string a kite must overcome the force of gravity. The force of the wind is used to accomplish this task.
Divide students into groups and have them build a kite and fly it.
Materials needed for a simple kite:
Sticks
Measuring device
String
Glue or friction tape
Scissors
Paper, plastic or cloth
Word Problems
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1. You are flying a plane from New York returning to Portland Oregon. You are at 10,000 feet altitude. Your speed is 220 miles per hour. You can descend at 465 feet per minute.
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How far from Portland should you begin to descend? Write down how you reached your answer . . .
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2. Eastern Airlines is having a sale on its airline tickets to Paris. When the ticket counter opens there are eighteen customers waiting in line. A new customer arrives every ten minutes and it takes six minutes to service a customer. Which new customer will be the first to arrive and not have to wait in line?
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3. Use the formula h=vt16t
2
to solve the following problem. An airliner sitting on the ground launched a flare with an initial velocity of 192 feet per second. How many seconds will it take for the flare to return to earth?
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4. At Cape Canaveral a missile is launched with an initial velocity of 2,230 ft per second. When will it be 40,000 feet high?
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5. The weight of an object on the moon varies directly as its weight on the earth. Tomarrka Brown weighs 168 pounds on earth and 28 pounds on the moon. Oneil Chambers weighs 108 pounds on earth. What would he weigh on the moon?
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Let X = weight on the moon
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Let Y = weight on the earth
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Then Y = KX. Find the value of K.
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6. An aircraft travels 3,600 miles in three hours flying with the wind. On the return trip, flying against the wind it took four hours to travel 4,000 miles. Find the rate of the wind and the rate of the plane in still air.
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Let A = rate of plane in still air and W = rate of the wind.
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9. Mrs. Bryant and Miss Fletcher’s Algebra I classes will be traveling to Orlando Florida via Delta Airlines. There are 40 students and 4 chaperons.
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The airlines has awarded the class and chaperons the following:
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Plane tickets $178.00 each
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Local transportation + to and from airports $20.00 each
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Gayway Motel Quad Occupancy $44.00 per room
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Four breakfasts $3.50 per breakfast per person
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Four dinners $8.00 per person
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Wet N Wild Water Park $9.00 per person
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Mark Two Dinner Theater $22.00 per person
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Disney World and Epcot Center 3 day pass $80.00 per person
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Insurance $10.00 per person
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Compute the total cost for per person and the total cost for the trip.
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10. Plan an overnight trip to Washington D.C. and have the students visit the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institute. There are also other museums that the students will be able to visit.
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Give the students the information and data and have them plan the trip.
An Up-to-Date Fleet
Delta’s fleet, one of the industry’s newest, is the most modern of the major U.S. carriers, with an average aircraft age of 8.61 years. The newest aircraft in operation is the medium-range Douglas MD-88, to be followed in Summer ’90 by the Boeing 767-300ER, which will be used mainly for international service. Delta’s current long-range aircraft, the L-1011-250/500, cruises at 548 miles per hour and can reach an altitude of 43,000 feet. For medium-range service, Delta operates the fuel-efficient Boeing 767-232/332 and 757-232 aircraft. Delta is constantly servicing, updating, and streamlining the entire fleet to provide the most efficient, economical, and comfortable service to the traveling public. Presently, there are 519 aircraft on order and options representing a value of $23 billion.
Figure 1—Courtesy of Delta Airlines
(figure available in print form)
Airplane’s basic movements
An airplane has three basic movements (1)
pitch
, (2)
roll
, and (3)
yaw
. A plane makes each movement on an imaginary axis. Pitch is a plane’s movement on its
lateral axis
as the nose moves up or down. Roll is a plane’s movement on its
longitudinal axis
as one wing tip dips lower than the other. Yaw is a plane’s movement on its
vertical axis
as the nose turns left or right.—WORLD BOOK diagram
Figure 2—Diagrams are after World Book
(figure available in print form)
Figure 3—Diagrams are after airplanes and How they Work.
(figure available in print form)
Figure 4—Diagram is after American Scientist
(figure available in print form)
Figure 5—Diagrams are after airplanes and How they Work
(figure available in print form)
Figure 6—Diagrams after airplanes and How they Work
(figure available in print form)
Figure 7—Diagram is after American Scientist
(figure available in print form)
