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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 4 |
| Time required | Short (several days) |
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Sponsor
| Sponsored by a generous grant from Northrop Grumman Foundation |
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| Weightless Flights of Discovery Program for Teachers |
| www.northropgrumman.com/ community/weightless.html |
| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
You can make a very simple hovercraft with a stiff, disposable plate—a pie plate should work well—and a balloon. Glue a square of cardboard in the center of the bottom of the plate. Make a small hole through the center of both of these layers. Enlarge the hole slightly with a pencil. Push a balloon through the hole so that the opening is on the front side of the plate, and rest of the balloon sticks out from the back. Blow up the balloon, then set the plate down (balloon side up). What happens? Add weight (using clay or pennies) symmetrically around the edge of the plate to measure amount of lift force. Can you control the direction of motion by making an outlet in the edge of the plate? (Parker, 2005, 14–15) Can you see any effect of changing the hole diameter? (This may be hard to measure.) You can also research and build more elaborate types of hovercraft using battery-powered fans for lift.Bibliography
Parker, S., 2005. The Science of Air: Projects and Experiments with Air and Flight, Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library.Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Aerodynamics & Hydrodynamics Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2006-12-11 18:48:27
Career Focus
If you like this project, you might want to think about career opportunities in
Aerodynamics & Hydrodynamics.
Humans have always longed to fly and to make other things fly, both through the air and into outer space—aerospace engineers are the people that make those dreams come true. They design, build, and test vehicles like airplanes, helicopters, balloons, rockets, missiles, satellites, and spacecraft. Learn more about this career: Aerospace Engineer.
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