Paper Airplanes and Gender: Who Makes and Throws Them Better?

Corrie Lawless John Jay Science and Engineering Academy

Abstract
The evidence suggests that boys are more likely to make and throw paper airplanes than are girls. If so, by the ninth grade most boys might be expected to have considerably more expertise in this area than do most girls. Three hypotheses were tested in this experiment. These were H1) paper airplanes constructed by boys will stay in the air longer than those made by girls and H2) paper airplanes made by boys will fly farther

than those made by girls. A third incidental hypotheses also tested was that H3) there is a positive correlation between how long a plane stays in the air and how far it will fly. Each test subject was given a single sheet of paper and asked to make a paper airplane. The planes were then thrown in random order by two designated throwers, one male and one female. The time each plane hung in the air was recorded, as was the distance the plane covered while in the air. All data collected was entered into an Excel spreadsheet. Plane performance between genders was compared using a Students t-test procedure, while the correlation between plane flight time and distance covered was calculated using the r2 coefficient. Analysis of the data revealed that..

Table of Contents
Page Abstract.. 1 Purpose/Hypotheses 3 Introduction. 4 Materials. 5

Procedure 5 Results and Discussion... 6 Table 1: t-Test Comparison of Male-Constructed vs. FemaleConstructed Paper Airplane Performance... 6 Graph 1: Mean Flight Times of Male-Constructed vs. FemaleConstructed Paper Airplanes 6 Graph 2: Mean Flight Times of Male-Constructed vs. FemaleConstructed Paper Airplanes 6 Graph 3: Scatter Plot Comparing Fight Times and Flight Distance of All Paper Airplanes. 6 Conclusion 7 Acknowledgements... 8 Bibliography. 9

Purpose: The purpose of this experiment was to find which gender makes paper airplanes that perform better. Hypothesis 1: Paper airplanes made by boys will stay in the air longer than those made by girls.

Null Hypothesis: The gender of the maker will have no effect on how long a paper airplane stays in the air. Hypothesis 2: Paper airplanes made by boys will fly farther than those made by girls. Null Hypothesis: The gender of the maker will have no effect on how far a paper airplane flies. Hypothesis 3: For all the paper airplanes used in this experiment, there will be a strong positive correlation between the flight time and the distance covered in the air. Null Hypothesis: The will be no observable correlation between flight time and distance.

Introduction
In this project we tested weather boys or girls make better paper airplanes. Paper airplanes used to be a common tool to explore aerodynamics with.Many believe that paper airplanes originated in China nearly 2000 years ago. The world record for a

paper airplane flying in the air is 27.6 seconds. The average flight times in our experiment were a little over 1.5 seconds. The most traditional paper plane consists of just 5 folds. Most of the girls in our experiment used this model. It seemed like all the guys had a different kind of plane. The girls planes had a better average flight time, but the guys had a better average distance. Paper airplanes became most popular during WW11 when toys could no longer be made with metal because of the supply shortage. That only left paper and wood available for making toys. After WW11 things returned to normal when metal could be used for toys again. Now a days, paper planes are just used when spare time is available , or to pass a little time. Most people dont use paper planes on a day to day basis. The fad of paper planes have died out, but is an interesting topic when comparing genders abilities .

2) Types of paper airplanes and what type most of the class made. 3) Gender differences in interests and physical performance. 4) Gender differences with respect to interest in and making of paper airplanes.

Materials
1) One ream 8 x 11 plain white printer paper. 2) Two stop watches. 3) Two tape measures.

Procedure
1) Approximately 90 9th grade girls and 110 9th grade boys were asked to participate in this study. 2) Each test subject was given a single sheet of plain white 8 x 11 paper and asked to fold it into a paper airplane. 3) After making their plane, all test subjects were asked to write their ID number on the plane. ID numbers and gender were not matched again until after the conclusion of the experiment. 4) One male and one female volunteer were chosen to launch the paper airplanes. Each plane was thrown once by each of the two volunteers. 5) The flight time and distance flown by each plane for each flight were recorded using a stopwatch and a tape measure respectively. 6) All data was entered into an Excel spreadsheet for statistical analysis.

Results and Discussion

All of your graphs and tables generated from the data on your Excel spreadsheet will go here along with a detailed explanation of your results. On your own project this section could be short or could be several pages long depending on the project and the type of experiment.
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances Male Distances Mean Variance Observations Pooled Variance Hypothesized Mean Difference df t Stat P(T<=t) one-tail t Critical one-tail P(T<=t) two-tail t Critical two-tail 14.26530612 77.69897959 49 80.62836861 0 70 1.553659054 0.062387814 1.66691448 0.124775627 1.994437086 Female Distances 10.7391304 3 87.0197628 5 23

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my wonderful SRD teacher, etc etc etc

Bibliography

Blackburn, Ken. Ken Blackburns Paper Airplanes. 21 June 2005 <http://www. paperplane.org/> Bland, J. (2003) About Gender: Differences. 2003. <http://www.gender.org.uk/ about/00_diffs.htm> Doherty, Paul, and Stephanie Syjuco. Paper Airplanes. Exploratorium Magazine 23.2. 1999. <http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/paper/airplanes.html> Kline, Richard. The Ultimate Paper Airplane. New York: Simon and Schuster: 1985. Schmidt, Norman. Best Ever Paper Airplanes. Winnipeg, Canada: TAMOS Books: 1994.