Group Reflection On Glider Competition

For about 2 weeks, we spent countless efforts in building our best glider for the upcoming competition cum assignment that would be held during Week 15.

You can just see mathematical calculations scribbled all over the white board and paint accidentally splattered around the table. Several prototypes of gliders were laying around and some were arranged evenly on the table as we did cross-referencing between one another. The whole table looked like a mini airport of gliders.

We did test flights and noted down the mistakes and miscalculations made to the glider.

Soon after several tries came out two flying gliders. According to our test flights, the gliders we created could glide very smoothly, given that we launched them in the correct way and not with too much force.The video showing the test flights of our gliders can be found in the previous post.

Feeling confident and prepared, we headed to class for the glider competition. The competition was split into 2 parts and in total of 5 teams participating.

In our opinion, the reason for this activity is to bond the classmates together and to make use of the knowledge we have learnt and apply it onto our hands-on assignment.

The first part of the competition happened within the classroom.
We had to launch our glider and land it as close to a black bottle placed on the floor. The lecturer will then measure the distance from the glider to the bottle. Each team had 3 tries to launch the glider. The lecturer will sum up the 3 distances and record the average. Our glider flew the furthest away from the bottle and our team ended up being last for the first part of the competition. One factor which could have caused the glider from flying much further away could be the large wings of the glider which generates more lift. Despite our team member controlling the amount of energy used to throw the plane, the plane still flew very far away. Worse of all was that the tip of the plane kept knocking into hard objects causing it to bend quite seriously.

Our Team Representative launching the Glider

Measuring of the Distance of the glider from the bottle

The second part of the competition happened outside the classroom. The objective is to throw the glider as far as possible. The lecturer will measure the distance from the starting location to the glider. Each team again had 3 tries and the lecturer will get the average out of the results.

Our plane came in last place again. We did our research and realized that the reason why our plane did not take off well was due to the sudden wind pressure change in the environment during out first try, our plane was damaged which impaired its ability to fly far. Thus in our conceding rounds, our glider did a very bad job at flying the distance.

Although it was a disappointing day, we did learn a few things from the glider competition. Firstly, before we launch the glider, we must take note of the changes that happen around the environment, such as a breeze which may cause our plane to fly off course and hit the surrounding objects, thus damaging it. Secondly, we must make sure the glider is strong enough to be able to withstand any damages when it lands or hits any object.
Overall, we enjoyed the glider making process as well as the competition as we had quite a fun time thinking of different glider designs and testing them out. What is most important was that we gained a lot of knowledge while doing this hands on assignment.

Group Reflection On Making Of Glider

On our first meet up, we brought paper cardboards, empty shoeboxes, foamboards, mounting boards and tapes to create the glider. We started of going online to search for references on different glider designs. We then confirmed on a design and the dimensions for the plane. Next, we measured, drew then cut out the design we chose on the cardboard of the shoebox. We then used tape to secure the different parts of the plane together. We then conducted our first flight test. During the flight test, we realized that both the model of the glider and the materials used aren’t suitable for it to glide smoothly. When the glider was thrown, it always flips over to the side and drops to the ground. This should be caused by the material used as there is air in between the cardboard. We then moved on to try using the next type of materials we have.

Our next try was using foam boards and mounting boards. We created a few planes of the same design we did previously and did a test flight. This test flight was slightly more successful as the plane does not flip in mid air. However, the plane only flies for a very short distance and swoops down towards the ground. This was due to the heavy weight of the foam boards and mounting boards. Therefore, we decided to try another material, which was the thin styrofoam board where we could get from Art Friend. 

Planning for glider's design and size

One of our very first plane designs
Material used: Paper cardboard, paper clips and tape.

Material used: Paper cardboard

Glider with aerofoil
Materials used: Mounting board, paper and tape.

On our second meet up, we made improvements to the structure of the glider. We used the Styrofoam board which we bought from Artfriend over the weekends. It is much lighter and has a smoother surface than the cardboards and mounting boards we used previously. We did our research and we found out that there’s a slight velocity improvement and better penetration if the material we use has a smooth, glossy surface.

Styrofoam from Art Friend

A short video on the testing out of our plane

Also, we reduced the wing loading to prevent breakdown of laminar flow over a wing with a hybrid of Styrofoam and taped construction. We put into account of the aspect ratio of the glider. The glider needs to have higher aspect ratios (Long thin wings) and thus, it can glide a long distance above the ground. We did a test flight for the gliders and went into a conclusion of which glider had the best maneuverability.

On the design part, we chose black for the overall plane body since it resembles the stealth plane. The red and yellow arrows show speed and agility of the glider. We placed a small amount of blutack on the tip of the glider to ensure a balance in the weight of the glider.

Our final glider design

Group Reflection on Ping Pong Ball Exercise

For the ping pong ball exercise, we were provided with 2 sheets of A4 size paper, a pair of scissors, a roll of scotch tape, a deflated balloon and a ping-pong ball. We were asked to conduct an experiment with the above materials to make the ping-pong ball levitate as high as possible.
The initial idea we came up with was to inflate the balloon and roll the A4 paper into a cylinder. Using the A4 paper as a pipe for air to pass through from the balloon, the ping-pong ball will be placed at the other end of the A4 paper. Then the ping-pong ball will be driven by the force of the air from the balloon and hence be thrusted upwards. First, one of us blew up the balloon till as big as possible while another of us rolled up a piece of A4 paper into a cylinder. Next, we pinched the mouth of the balloon tightly, then we fitted the cylinder into the mouth of the balloon and taped the balloon to the paper cylinder to prevent air from escaping. We then placed the ping pong ball at the other end of the paper cylinder and released our grip on the mouth of the balloon. Initially, the ping pong ball rose by a little bit and then it flew out of track and dropped onto the floor as it was unable to maintain its equilibrium.
We tried the next idea which was to roll the piece of A4 paper into a cone but we did not execute this idea as the opening on one side of the cone is quite big and the air will be able to escape easily.
Our teacher suggested we use a shorter cylinder and we cut the cylinder and tested it out the same way as what we did for the first idea, however the ping pong ball only moved slightly as the cylinder was too long and the air travelling up the cylinder lost its speed before reaching the ping pong ball. Then we decided to make the cylinder shorter so that the speed of the air from the balloon will not be reduced so greatly when it reaches the ping pong ball. We executed this idea and it worked. The ping pong ball levitated at a greater height than before and it was quite stable.
From this exercise, we learnt that the medium created cannot be too long as the air travelling through the cylinder will lose its speed as it travels further up. Another thing we learnt is that the shape of the medium between the ping pong ball and the balloon affects the propulsion. With a straight cylinder, air can travel the shortest distance possible. By using a shorter cylinder, the air resistance will be reduced. Also, by pressing the balloon when it is releasing air, the balloon will release air at a faster rate, thus resulting in a higher thrust.

Individual Reflection on Propulsion Demonstration - Tan Wan Ting Malissa

Before the start of the propulsion demonstration, we were all instructed to put on the provided ear muffs to prevent the sound created by the engine from hurting our ears. Like any other vehicle engines, the plane engine must also be started up in advance to heat it up first. To start up the engine, energy has to be supplied to turn the compressor which acts like an electric fan. Huge amounts of air from the surroundings are brought into the engine inlet and the air enters the compressor at the rear of the inlet. The air at the exit of the compressor which is at a much higher pressure than steam is combined with a small amount of fuel in the burner and ignited. This explains why a small flame could be seen during the demonstration. As the engine runs faster and faster, the volume of the sound created by the engine increased gradually. After the demonstration was over, i went over and took a look at the instruments and realized that the temperature went up to quite high and was slowly decreasing after the engine has been turned off.
Through this demonstration, i have learnt how the energy needed to fly an airplane is generated.

Individual Reflection on ping-pong activity - Steven_s10077211d

On this very faithful day, the virus got the better of me making me ill. Sadly, i missed the activity.

However i did this experiment when i was in Secondary school. This is what i remember.

We were given a kind of a foil, a huge balloon, scotch tape, rubber band and a ping pong ball. Baiscally we blew up the balloon and put the foil at the end and then used the rubber band to control the air flow from the balloon. And then placed the ping pong ball while the air is being blown out and we managed to keep the ping pong ball there.

Reflection on Propulsion Demonstration - Steven_S10077211d

Head over to the room and then ordered to wear the ear masks. This was to ensure that we do not hurt our ears from sound generated by the engine. The engineer hit the buttons and turned it on. The attempt he made failed though. He said that it is alright as it because of the temperature of the engine. It needs a warm up. His second attempt was successful and indeed the engine was loud. I could hear it quite loudly even though i had my ear mask on.

He talked about how the air gets compressed and sucked into the engine. The air helps burning up the fuel in the combustion chamber. Soon thrust in generated by the hot gasses produced. i also noticed that as the revolution-per-minute increased the engine started to become louder. I also observed that the temperature increased during this time.

i believe that the plane is made in a way that it is able to cut so much sound from the engines. I wonder, if such small engines can make this much noise, how about those huge guys that are on the planes. Indeed amazing.

Individual Reflection on ping-pong activity - Haikal S10077066B

I’ve missed the activity since I didn’t come for the lesson. However, I’ve asked my friends about what they did. They told me they have to ‘ float ‘ a ping-pong ball using material given. They did some brainstorming and came out with several ideas. However, most doesn’t work well. Using knowledge gain in class (Diffusion etc), thye workout their mistakes. They keep trying and finally able to ‘ float ‘ the ping-pong ball.

Lesson learn: Don't fall sick at the wrong timing and miss such fun activity.

Reflection on Propulsion Demonstration - Haikal S10077066B

Before the demonstration, we were told to wear a special headset to protect our ears from the deafening sound from the engine itself. The guy presses some buttons and I could hear sound coming from the engine even though we are wearing the headset.

The engine is smaller than I’ve expected. So, it works in the way that air is sucked into the engine and the oxygen would than be used to burn the fuel in the combustion chamber. Hot air is produced to give thrust to the engine. This is where the engine gains temperature as high as 600 Degree Celsius and a huge flaming combustion can be seen within the engine itself.

In conclusion, I think the demonstration doesn’t really show how the engine entirely works but it does give the basic on how it works.

Reflection on Propulsion Demonstration - Yeo Eng Hai Jasper

We were instructed to wear the ear mask before the propulsion demonstration to prevent the loud noise generated by the engine hurting our ears. The expert ran the engine twice during the propulsion demonstration. According to what he said, the first run on the engine will always fail due to the temperature of the engine. This theory reminds me of the conventional oven we use in our kitchen. For example, before we bake or cook anything in the conventional oven, we would preheat the oven to a certain temperature, so that the baking or cooking process is more effective. When the engine was started at first run, a glow from the flame generated by the engine was seen prominently for a moment before the engine died. After the first run, I took a look at the instruments, and realized the temperature of the engine was significantly increased. On the second run, the sound generated by the engine increased gradually. From the sound, I could assume that the engine was running faster and faster. The revolutions-per-minute of the engine keeps on increasing, according to the value on the instruments.

In the engine, air is compressed after being drawn in from the air intake. The compressed air and the fuel will be ignited in the compression chamber, resulting in a stream of hot gases driving the turbine.

Reflection on Propulsion demonstration – Lee Qi Wei

For the propulsion demonstration, I think that it is an cool experience from the demonstration. I get to know where the energy came from for the plane to gain more thrust and fly.

The air was drawn in through the air intake thus air is compressed. The compressed air are mixed with the fuel and being brunt in the combustion chamber. Hot gases are produced and expand through turbine. Therefore, thrust is created.When the engine is running the temperature can go up to about 600 degrees. The sound made by the engine is very loud so we are being told to wear an ear mask to protect our ears.

From this demonstration, I learnt how the gas turbine engine is being operated to create more thrust for the plane to fly.

Individual Reflection Ping Pong Ball Exercise - Yeo Eng Hai Jasper

The purpose of this ping pong exercise we have participated is to allow us to better understand propulsion and the different factors that contributed to the final thrust of the propulsion. We are given a pair of scissors, scotch tape, balloon, ping pong ball and 2 sheets of A4 paper to create thrust to propel the ping pong ball upwards, as high as possible.

Our initial idea was to roll the paper into a cylinder, and used it as a medium between the balloon and the ping pong ball. When the air was released from the balloon, the air travelled along the cylinder and pushed the ping pong ball upwards. However, the ping pong ball only floated upwards for a moment before landing back down to the paper. The distance that the ping pong ball travelled upwards was minute.

Then our lecturer suggested in using a smaller paper to roll into a shorter cylinder. We proceeded, cutting a small portion from the A4 paper, rolling into a cylinder, before securing it with scotch tape. We also secured the balloon to the paper cylinder with scotch tape, to minimize the air being released directly outwards to the surrounding. We released the air from the balloon, with me pressing the balloon to give additional force to the expulsion of air from the balloon. The ping pong ball, propelled by the thrust of the air from the balloon, floated upwards by a few centimetres and maintained its altitude for the duration of the expulsion of air from the balloon.

From this exercise, I can conclude that; One, the shape of the medium between the balloon the ping pong ball affects propulsion. By using a straight cylinder, air travels with minimal air friction and travels using the shortest distance possible, resulting in more propulsion.

Two, Using a shorter cylinder means a shorter distance for the air to travel from the balloon to the ping pong ball, which results in lesser air friction and more propulsion. Three, the speed or the rate of the air that was released from the balloon affects the amount of thrust. By pressing the balloon when releasing air from it, I am giving more pressure to the balloon. Therefore, the balloon releases air at a slightly faster rate, resulting in a higher thrust.

The propulsion can be made more effective by heating the air in the balloon up.

Reflection on Propulsion Demonstration - Tan Shi Yun

Before we start the gas turbine engine demonstration run, we are being told to put on an ear mask. This is to prevent the loud sound of the engine to hurt our ear. From this demonstration, it gives me a better understanding on how the plane gain it’s thrust from and how the engine operates.
This engine is widely used for modern high-speed passenger and military aircraft. This engine requires air to generate it. Thus air is drawn in through the intake and being compressed. The compressed air will mix it with the fuels and burnt in the combustion chamber to give hot gases. Hot gases is expanded through turbine and therefore, trust is being generated. During this demonstration, we also get to know that when the engine is generating the fuels, the temperature can go up to about 600 degree Celsius.
In conclusion, I get to have a better knowledge on how the gas turbine engine is operated and how thrust is being generated. And since these types of engine need air to generate trust, thus it can’t be use in space. But these engines allow high altitude operation and have a higher reliability and durability.

Individual Reflection Ping Pong Ball Exercise- Tan Shi Yun

During the class, our teacher told us to form into groups to try out this propulsion game about how to create more thrust to the ping-pong ball. We are being asked to make the ping-pong ball fly as high as possible by using the given materials to us such as, scissors, tape, balloon, ping-pong ball and A4 papers.
Firstly, I started to blow the balloon and my group mates roll the A4 size paper to a cylinder shape. And we tape the mouth of the balloon to the bottom of the paper cylinder. After that I let go of my hand and let the air in the balloon out. At first the ping-pong ball did not go any higher. It just stops at the top of the cylinder.
After much thoughts and discussion with my group members, we decided to cut the A4 size paper to a smaller piece, since we want the air to touch the ping-pong ball as soon as possible. And the shorter the paper is, lesser friction will cause between the air and the paper.
After cutting the paper to smaller piece, we rolled it to become a shorter cylinder. And we did the same thing by taping the mouth of the balloon to the bottom of the cylinder. And we placed the ping-pong ball at the top and thus I let go of the mouth of the balloon to allow the air in the balloon to pass through it.
But other than we changed the length of the cylinder, we also press the balloon in order to make the air in the balloon to flow out faster so as to create more thrust. In the end, we succeeded by making the ping-pong ball fly up.
Through this game, I’ve learnt that the shape and size of the cylinder can actually determine the friction of air. Therefore, the shorter the cylinder is, the air will have more pushes to the ping-pong ball. Thus it creates more thrust.

Individual reflection on ping-pong ball activity - Lee Qi Wei

For the ping-pong ball activity, it was quite interesting and fun as we had to think of ways to let the ping-pong ball float up as high as possible by using a balloon, two pieces of A4 papers, scissors, ping-pong ball and a roll of tape. After discussing with my teammates, we tried rolling up a piece of A4 size paper into a cylindrical shape and we blowed up the balloon. Next, we placed the opening of the balloon in to the bottom opening of the cylinder shape paper but it did not work as the air escaped from the gaps.

After that we tried another method, which was rolling the paper into a smaller roll and used tape to tape the opening of the balloon and the bottom opening of the paper together but the ping-pong ball did not float up. After trying out different methods, we gave some thoughts to it and we think that there might not be enough pressure to push the ping-pong ball up.

So we tried again, this time, we tried cutting the paper into a smaller piece and roll the paper up to a smaller roll and tape the balloon on it. After releasing the opening of the balloon, we squeeze the balloon to force the air to come out faster. This way, the air will have more pressure to reach the ping-pong ball faster and the smaller the area for the air to pass through, the more force the air needs to squeeze into the bottom opening of the paper and so it can create more thrust. By doing this, the ping-pong ball can fly higher. At last it worked. Although the ping-pong ball did not manage to fly very high but it managed to float in the air constantly and also quite stably. From this activity, I learnt that the size of the cylinder could affect the airflow causing the ping-pong ball to float higher and more stable.

Individual Reflection Ping Pong Ball Exercise - Tan Wan Ting Malissa

My role in this ping pong ball exercise was to help think of ideas, prepare the materials and help my group members execute out the exercise.

Initially, the teacher told us to make use of a pair of scissors, a roll of scotch tape, a balloon, a ping pong ball and two pieces of paper to blow the ping pong ball as high as possible. The most workable idea that came to my mind was to make use of the thrust of the air from the balloon to push the ping pong ball up.

Using this idea, we thought of how to make use of the materials we are given and proceeded to create the props. We used a piece of A4 paper and rolled it along its length to create a cylinder and used a tape to tape it. One of my teammates then blowed up the balloon and attached it to one end of the A4 paper. We placed the ping pong ball at the other end and slowly release the mouth of the balloon to release the air from it. The ping pong ball floated only at a very low height.

Our teacher's suggestion was to make the cylinder shorter so that the air would be able to reach the ping pong ball faster and would not lose its speed that fast. I thought of another way to roll the piece of A4 paper which was to roll it into a cone shape. But, after further consideration, i realized that by rolling it into a cone, the hole at one end would be smaller and the air going through it will be slow and little. Whereas for the other end, the hole would be much bigger and air will be lost easily and quickly. So, we decided to continue improving on the size and length of the A4 cylinder paper. We tried another way by making the cylinder short and thin and it worked. The ping pong ball flew much higher than before and it was floating quite stably in the air.

After all the experimenting, this exercise has made me realize that a shorter and thinner cylinder allow the air to diffuse faster from the balloon to the empty space inside the cylinder. As compared to the amount of air inside the balloon, the amount of air in the thin and short cylinder would be very little, hence diffusion will occur.