Aerodynamics

What is weight?

• What you have to do when your parents are talking to friends

• Air pushing up on the wing of an airplane

• The measure of gravity pulling down on an object

• The force pushing back on a forward moving object

What is lift?

• The speeding up and slowing down of air as it moves across a wing causing an upward push

• The measure of gravity pulling down on an airplane's wing

• The force caused by an airplane's engine that pushes the plane forward

• Lift is the opposite of drag

What is drag?

• The speeding up and slowing down of air

• The angle of an airplane's wings with the front being higher than the back

• The wing being sucked in an upward direction by the air

• Drag is what pulls backward on an airplane, slowing it down

What is thrust?

• The force that pulls or pushes a airplane forward

• The force that equalizes lift and drag

• The force that causes a plane to fall towards Earth

• The measure of air pressure on the airplane's wing

What are the three basic types of stability?

• pitch, catch & thrust

• lift, drop & spiral

• directional, lift & pitch

• spiral, directional & pitch

True or False. Pitch stability keeps an airplane flying at a constant speed.

• True

• False

True or False. Spiral stability will keep an airplane from spinning around like a football.

• True

• False

True or False. Directional stability keeps an airplane from turning around and flying backward.

• True

• False

True or False. A paper airplane must balance in a region less than an inch long to have proper stability.

• True

• False

True or False. Fins don't serve any purpose on a paper airplane. They are just used to make the plane look cool.

• True

• False