Helicopter experimental design

The group project consists of designing and running an experiment or experiments to find the optimum configuration for a paper helicopter. The basic helicopter design is described in section III of this document and students must follow the basic design specified in section II. The experimental factors to be used are also described in section II. Be sure to carefully read the entire document. Section II contains important information on the design of the helicopter and the conduct of the experiment.Paper Helicopter Group Project for Math 740/840 I Introduction The group project consists of designing and running an experiment or experiments to find the optimum configuration for a paper helicopter. The basic helicopter design is described in section III of this document and students must follow the basic design specified in section II. The experimental factors to be used are also described in section II. Be sure to carefully read the entire document. Section II contains important information on the design of the helicopter and the conduct of the experiment. Two responses are to be recorded for the experiment. The first and primary response is flight time, which is how long it takes the helicopter to land after being dropped from a specified height. The second response is accuracy, which is the distance the helicopter lands from a specified target point in the landing zone. An inexpensive plumb bob can be used to align the helicopter drop point (above) with the target location (below). The same distance, drop point, and target should be used for the entire project. Your goal in the experiment is to find an optimum helicopter configuration that gives the longest flight time and the most accuracy (closeness to target). In addition to flight time and accuracy consider the qualitative factor stability, it is highly desirable to have a helicopter configuration with a stable flight trajectory rather than one that tumbles and falls to the ground. Finally, in considering flight time, I wish to compare results from different projects, so convert the observed flight time to a rate of descent in centimeters per second based upon your drop height – I assume that students will most likely use different heights. Lower rates (longer flight times) are desirable. You may complete the project as an individual; however I do encourage students to work in groups if possible. If you decide to work as a group, then I fully expect everyone in the group to contribute to the conduct, analysis and write-up of the experiment. The same grade is given to each member of a group. Finally, try having some fun with the project. It is a nice exercise to apply the concepts learned in the class and teach design of experiments, but 1 it also can be a fun exercise. II The Paper Helicopter Experiment Introduction The "paper helicopter experiment" is a training exercise, which allows participants to apply the concepts of Experimental Design to an actual physical experiment. The exercise involves the design and construction of paper helicopters with the goal of finding a helicopter design that maximizes total flight time (the time required for a paper helicopter to land after being dropped from a predetermined height) and accuracy (the closeness of the landing point to a specified target in the landing zone). Figure 1 depicts the general shape and experimental design factors that could be considered for the construction of a paper helicopter. The three factors you are to experiment with in this project are bolded in blue in Figure 1. The flight time response should be converted to a rate so that it is possible to compare results of helicopters dropped from different heights by the various groups. As a rule the minimum drop height should be > 10 feet (or > 3 meters) in order to give the helicopter time to stabilize and rotate once it is dropped. Experimental Factors Figure 1 in section III shows a picture of a typical paper helicopter.