Aerodynamic Activities

Aerodynamics is the study of how force affects the movement of objects through the air. People have been interested in the principles of flight since the times of the ancient Greeks, dating back to the mythology of Icarus and Daedalus. In the 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci wrote an early tract on principles of flying as it related to birds. He noted that a bird’s center of gravity did not match up with its center of pressure.

Sir Isaac Newton developed a theory of air resistance in 1726, coming up with a theory about drag which turned out to be correct only for low speeds. However, Newton later developed the famous three basic laws of motion. First, a body at rest will stay at rest, and a body at motion will stay in motion, unless it is acted upon by physical forces. This is called the law of inertia. Second, a body will accelerate proportionate to the force acted upon it and inversely proportionate to its mass. It is otherwise known as force times mass equals acceleration. Third, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is called the action-reaction law.

The actual “founder of aerodynamics,” however, is usually attributed to Sir George Cayley. Understanding the four forces that act on an airplane, he built a glider with a wing and a tail and was able to fly it successfully. Using the angle of attack of the wing, he realized that curved surfaces produced more lift than flat surfaces.

Four forces act on an airplane: lift, drag, thrust and weight. In order for an airplane to fly straight, lift must equal weight, and thrust must equal drag. If the drag becomes greater than the thrust, the speed of the airplane will slow. If thrust is increased over drag, the airplane will move faster. If the lift of the airplane drops below its weight, the plane will drop. If the lift increases over the airplane’s weight, the airplane will rise.

Class Activities

• The Wright Stuff: Using Kites to Study Aerodynamics
• The Ride of the Cyclist: Studying Aerodynamic Benefits of Different Cycling Positions
• How to Levitate A Ping Pong Ball with a Hair Dryer
• Make a Proper Propeller
• Hot Air Tissue Paper Balloon
• What a Drag!
• How Things Fly: Bernoulli Brain Teasers
• Paper Plane Flying Circus
• Motion Math
• The Aerodynamic Drag of Several Basic Vehicle Shapes

Build Your Own

• Build an X-1 Paper Glider
• How to Make Air Rockets
• Make Your Own Kite
• How to Make an Electric Aeroplane
• How to Make a Balloon Rocket
• Make a Boomerang that Actually Comes Back
• How to Make a Balloon Rocket Car
• Build Your Own Wind Tunnel
• How to Make A Simple Flying Hoop Machine
• Make a Maple Seed Helicopter

Learn More

• Forces of Flight
• How Things Fly: National Air and Space Museum Exhibition
• Flights of Inspiration: First Flight – The Wind Tunnel
• NatHaz Modeling Laboratory
• Aerodynamics for Students

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