Learn about aerodynamics and make your own cheap, simple kites

Description:

Possibly the simplest and cheapest kite in the world.

Equipment Needed:

A standard notebook-size piece of paper. (Scrap paper from a printer is fine.)

A spool of sewing thread

Scissors and tape

Something to poke holes in paper (a pencil or pen tip is fine)

The Digital Bits Science Lab Experiment:

Take the sheet of paper, fold it diagonally as shown in the picture below, and cut off the tag end of the paper to make a square. Save the tag end for later, you will need it to make a tail for the kite.

Fold the square part as shown below, then flip over and fold the other side the same way.

Once both sides are folded, open it out and poke holes on both sides at the points shown.

Then trim off the tips with the scissors.

Take the tag end that you cut off the paper to make it a square, and cut this into four strips as shown. Tape these end-to-end to make a tail.

Tape the tail to the kite.

Then tie a piece of thread through the hole that you punched in the paper, with the thread about as long as is shown below, to make a “bridle”. Tie a loop in the middle of the thread.

Now take the rest of your thread and tie it to the loop in the bridle, and your kite is ready to fly. Take it outside and give it a shot. It doesn’t take much wind to fly these kites, so you can fly them even on fairly calm days.

How do kites work?

When the wind hits them they divert the air, forcing it forward and down. At the same time, the wind makes a force on the kite, forcing it backwards and up. This is the basic principle that makes “lift” in airplanes. The string keeps the kite from simply being blown backwards, so it has to go upwards.

Since these kites are so cheap and easy to make, you can try lots of experiments:

- What happens if you make the tail longer or shorter?

- What happens if you make the “bridle” string longer or shorter?

- What happens if you cut holes in the kite?

- Can you string a bunch of kites in a chain? How far apart do they have to be in order to work properly?

- Can you think of ways to change the shape of the kite to make it fly differently?

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