We are to investigate the factors that determine the terminal velocity of a 'helicopter'.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Helicopter Investigation

Planning

We are to investigate the factors that determine the terminal velocity of a 'helicopter'.

We will be making helicopters with two controlled variables and dropping them from the Great Hall balcony, a distance of 3.6 metres. We will time how long they take to drop from half way up (or some distance like that) to the bottom so that we are only timing them when terminal velocity is reached.

When released from rest, the helicopter usually starts to spin after a short while. Once it has started spinning it has reached terminal velocity. We are to measure what the terminal velocity is and will be using two variables and seeing how they could affect the terminal velocity.

Possible variables are:

1. Length of wings

2. Number of paper clips

3. Width of wings

4. Colour of card

5. Shape of wings

6. Length of stem

7. Angle of wings

The two variables I will use will be the length of the wings and the number of paper clips.

This is what my helicopters