By developing students’ intuition in Forces, Free Body Diagrams and Torque, this lesson aims to improve the intuition of students on how forces affect the flight paths of paper airplanes. The main objectives are to: review Newton’s Laws of Motion, learn about Free Body Diagrams, and touch upon what creates and counteracts Torque. The lesson aims to be a primer on Free Body diagrams for students in Grades 10 and 11, or as a review on the applications of Free Body Diagrams for students in Grade 12.
By analyzing Free Body Diagrams in a variety of situations, this lesson aims to improve the students’ ability on predicting how paper airplanes fly through the air. Doing so with a paper airplane launcher helps to set a control factor for consistency, as well as providing a relatively fun platform for students to work with.