First Day Down, Too Many More To Go

So today was my first day teaching. Aside from a whole morning of confusion, because the people in charge have no idea what they're doing, the experience has left me decidedly against entering lower education as a career choice.

My plans were to conduct the lesson plans posted below. Ha, no such thing was followed. I tried with my first class (Kindergarten tykes), but 35 out of the 50 minutes was spent teaching them how to fold a paper airplane. Of which only 45% successfully folded something other than a ball.

Then, came the class of first graders. First graders are an interesting group, in that they're still young and immature, but they're starting to develop an attitude. After several minutes of yelling, threatening, and physically placing children in chairs, I was able to conduct a short lesson, from which they gleaned that "long and skinny" airplanes flew farther than "short and fat" ones. This mantra would be repeated throughout the day.

The day got progressively better, as the kids got older. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the rising 5th grade group, who knew what the Scientific Method was, used words like "aerodynamic" and talked to me about things like "lift", "wind resistance", and "drag". I have high hopes for them. They also came late in the afternoon and were very sleepy and sedate. I think they were my favorite class of all.

It's 1:30 in the morning, I haven't made lesson plans for tomorrow, and I'm exhausted both physically and mentally*, so I'll make this post short.

Here's some of my favorite quotes of the day:
Student: Are you one of the ones that grows walnuts?
Me: What?
Student: *mumble mumble* walnuts?
Me: Erm....no I don't grow walnuts.
Student: No, do you grow into a walnut?
Me: ...
Student: Do you grow into a walnut?
Me: No, go sit down and fold you airplane.

Me: What can you tell me about airplanes?
Student 1: The fly.
Me: Okay, what else.
Student 2: Umm, they...they....they fly.
Me: Okay, excellent...what else.
Student 3: I know, I know! They fly.
Me: Okay, let me ask you a different question: What do airplanes look like?
Student 4: They fly.

Student: Mr. Cortez..
Me: No, I'm Mr. Sakimoto.
Another Student: No you're not!
Me: Yeah, actually, I am.
Student: Mr. Cortez?
Me: Sure, fine, what do you want?

Student: Mr. Sakimoto, are you Mrs. Sakimoto's husband?
Me: No, I'm her son.
Student: Oh, that explains a lot.
My Mom: Yeah, I'd never marry him, I could do much better.



*I now understand why people drink.

Test Run

So, as tomorrow is my first day of teaching, I decided it would be prudent to make sure some of these experiments actually work. As posted previously, the first day will deal with aerodynamics, namely, making paper airplanes and flying them.

Since physics experiments never work as you would like them to, I decided to conduct my own experiment and analysis, in hopes that my findings lined up with what I will be teaching the kids*.

As such, I made 4 airplanes:
1) 8.5" x 11" Reynold's Recycled Aluminum Foil
-----Folded in the traditional airplane design (see pictures)

2) 8.5" x 11" Recycled Copier Paper (maker unknown, contained first page of "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent).
-----Folded in traditional airplane design (see pictures)

3) 8.5" x 11" Recycled Copier Paper (maker unknown, contained fourth page of "Omigod You Guys" from the musical "Legally Blonde").
-----Folded in Stunt Model design, (see pictures)

4) Two (2) 8.5" x 11" Recycled Copier Paper (maker unknown, contained first page of "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent and second page of "If We Hold On Together" from "The Land Before Time).
-----Folded in traditional airplane design (see pictures)

The results from the testing period are presented below. All planes were manually thrown from a height of 5'3" in the positive y direction. Initial velocities were not measured. An average wind velocity was measured at 4mph in the positive y direction.

Fig. 1: Scatter Plot of Flight Distances and Direction for Trial Day 1

Fig. 2: Absolute Displacement By Plane Type. Standard Deviation Presented In Error Bars.

Discussion:
The biggest surprise was that the aluminum foil was actually the lightest plane material, and therefore flew the farthest (Fig. 1 and 2). To be honest, I had chosen aluminum foil as a metal, with the notion that it's increased mass would show that heavier things won't glide as far. However, what I had failed to take into account was the fact that the foil could be rolled into a much finer and thinner material, reducing it's entire mass, while maintaining the equivalent surface area.

As expected, the less aerodynamic stunt plane (3) flew the shortest. It also exhibited the largest standard deviation, and deviation from center trajectory. Also, the double paper plane (4) flew slightly shorter on average than the single sheet equivalent.


Now what perplexes me is the Ring Plane presented in the first picture. I've seen them made, and decided to make one myself. True to form, they fly very far (not included in analysis, as no way of controlling initial impulse could be kept, since the launch style is different). However, I must admit I don't know why. I believe it has something to do with the lip on the ring, which does something with the boundary layer effect, however, since I have yet to take a Fluid Mechanics class, I'm not quite sure what to do with that. An explanation (one I could perhaps give to little kids) would be appreciated.

Here's to surviving my first day of work.



*not that I came into the experiment with preconceived notions of results, nor did I try to skew the results to fit my hypothesis.