Aerodynamics Explained by a World Record Paper Airplane Designer | Level Up | WIRED

John Collins, origami enthusiast and paper airplane savant, walks us through all the science behind five spectacular paper airplanes. Most people know how to fold a simple plane, but paper airplanes can take as much from science as the newest car designs.


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[WIRED]

Hey everyone, would you like to see in-depth tutorials showing how to make the paper airplanes in this video? What's your favorite paper airplane design featured here? Reply to this comment and let us know. We'd love to hear what you have to say.

[keanyl]

16 minutes of watching a guy talking about paper airplanes

i do not regret it

[varunreddy]

The combination of his explanation and animation and his little bit jokes result into understandable explanation

[nicoomycousin]

This guy has great stage presence. He’d be a great host for an educational tv show about physics

[fadeseven]

Me: makes paper airplane so i won't get bored of studying

Also me: realizes there is more maths in making a paper airplane than in my book.

[everyday]

Teacher : 'you can't have a career by making and playing with paper airplanes.'
This video : 'are you sure about that'

[LeBeautiful]

now, my paper airplane going to have better dynamics than a boeing 747!

[anilkullu]

He's that one teacher everyone wants

[sujithpc]

Nice, Now I can beat my 5yr old nephew in paper plane flying contest

[owen]

This is one of the best video explaining aerodynamics out there. He dose a fantastic job adding the simple concepts to the complex. Really well done!

[smajyman]

Even his hair looks like a paper aeroplane

[juralaes]

I thought I was about to see a tutorial on building paper planes, instead I found out an amazing class of physics, well done. Thanks

[christiancordeiro]

Im a 4th year aerospace engineering student and this was the best explanation of basic aerodynamics ive heard so far

[pjrichfart]

I have just won a competition for paper aeroplanes in my school using Suzan (the last one)

[btt]

Lift to Drag Ratio = Glide Ratio 7:41

Big wings = More drag||Small wings = Cut through air 7:21

Air will follow the shape of any object 4:29&10:27

Stall = Is when the air cannot follow the shape of the wing 10:33

Drag = The Air molecules are trying to halt the kinetic force of an object 2:09

Boundary Layer = The air stuck to a object(Which is spinning) will move with the object 12:24

Slower fluid speeds = High Pressure
Faster fluid speeds = Low pressure 3:37

Wing Loading = Weight of Plane ÷ Surface of Wings
High Wing Loading: Moves faster for lift
Low Wing Loading: Slower to life the weight 6:36





I'm done now😃

[sagebrushaviation]

I have been teaching people to fly for over a decade and thought I had a good way to explain the magic of lift. This is the first time I have heard the term "coanda effect" but it makes so much sense. Never stop learning. Thanks for the great video.

[rockopeace]

I didn’t know i need to know all this. Wow

[bringthemustard]

John Collins is a great presenter and speaker as well as incredible paper plane master.

[oracuda]

1. As far as I know, aerodynamic stalls due to slow airspeed don't exist, "Stall Speed" Is the lowest speed you can fly level until you have to point your pitch up too much that your wings stall out, IE Your minimum level flying airspeed.

2. Bernoulli's explanation on wings is still correct, air can compress and that's easier for it to do than move air around it, so you can think of it as a pipe, partially.

3. You forgot the coanda effect and euler equations relations, A curved streamline has a pressure gradient, higher on the outside of the curve, lower in the inside of the curve, If I can remember correctly, that's due to the inertia force / centripetal / centrifugal (whichever is the right term, I genuinely can't remember but you get my point), And due to this principle, Where there is a curve, there is a pressure gradient, which is why planes may also have concave curves on the bottom of their wings in some areas to slightly increase pressure on that side.

Learn engineering has some good videos on it, But either way, all explanations are correct and provide to the lift on the wing, it's a complicated yet beautiful balance of physics in play to achieve flight and aerodynamic lift forces, excluding the false "equal time arguement", because believe it or not, Air particles can't exactly think, communicate and understand eatchother.

Edit 1 : About the magnus effect / spinning ball, you can also say that since air at the bottom is slowed down and crunched up, and air at the top is uninhibited, theres a high pressure at the bottom than on the top, creating lift.

[weitao]

what got me into paper airplanes is how when you throw an airplane in a window shut moving bus, it appears to move fairly fast but in reality is actually traveling the 60+ miles the bus is moving as well