Your mission
It has no wings and no engine. It is a straw with two paper hoops taped on. And somehow it glides clear across a room.
Work through each tab in the menu. Read how it works, then show your thinking. Each tab you finish earns a badge.
Earn all five badges to unlock the build plans. Then you get to make a real hoop glider and fly it.
My badges
Teacher note
- For each student: 1 straight straw (not the bendy kind), 1 index card (3 by 5 inches), clear tape, scissors, and a ruler.
- For the class: a tape measure, or just count floor tiles. A hallway, gym, or multipurpose room gives the best flights.
- Everything is normal classroom supplies. Paper straws work as well as plastic ones.
- The build plans unlock after all five badges are earned. Progress is saved on this Chromebook only.
- The Flight lab is a simple model. Real distances will be different, but the patterns match: the big hoop belongs in back, wobbling costs distance, and a smooth level throw beats a wild one.
- Set one throwing line and have everyone throw in the same direction.
The four forces of flight
Everything that flies, from a jet to a paper hoop, deals with the same four forces.
Read: four forces
A force is a push or a pull. Four forces act on anything that flies.
Weight is the pull of gravity. It pulls the glider down.
Lift pushes the glider up. It comes from air pushing on the hoops.
Thrust pushes the glider forward. For a hoop glider, the thrust comes from your hand.
Drag is air resistance. It pushes backward and slows the glider down.
An airplane has engines that make thrust for the whole flight. A glider only gets thrust for a moment, during the throw. After it leaves your hand, three forces are left: weight, lift, and drag.
Picture it
How can a hoop be a wing?
Wings do not have to be flat.
Read: making lift
A hoop is a wing bent into a circle. It can make lift just like a flat wing can.
As the glider moves forward, air runs into the hoops. The hoops are tipped just a little, so they push that air downward. When the hoops push air down, the air pushes the hoops up. That upward push is lift.
No forward motion means no lift. If you hold a hoop glider still and drop it, it just falls. It has to be moving through the air.
Faster air makes more lift. Bigger hoops catch more air, so they make more lift too.
There is a cost. Catching more air also makes more drag. Every glider design is a trade between lift and drag.
Try it: change the speed
Why the big hoop goes in back
An arrow and a hoop glider use the same trick to fly straight.
Read: staying steady
Have you seen the feathers on the back of an arrow? They keep the arrow pointing straight. If the arrow starts to turn sideways, air pushes on the feathers and swings the back end into line again.
The big hoop on a glider does the same job, so it goes in the back. If the nose drifts off course, the big hoop catches more air and pulls the glider straight again.
The small hoop goes in the front. It makes a little lift to hold the nose up, without fighting the big hoop for control.
Here is the rule: the part that catches the most air always wants to trail behind. A weather vane works the same way.
Try it: swap the hoops
Big hoop trails behind. Steady.
The long slide down
With no engine, a glider needs another way to keep moving.
Read: gliding and stalling
After the throw, a glider has no thrust. So what keeps it moving forward? Gravity does. A glider is always sliding down a long, gentle hill made of air, like a sled on a snowy slope. It trades height for distance.
A good glider gets a lot of distance for each bit of height it gives up.
The throw matters. Hold the straw in the middle, with the hoops on top and the small hoop in front. Give it a smooth, level push, like throwing a dart.
A wild throw can make the glider wobble or swoop upward. A glider that swoops up slows down. When it gets too slow, the hoops cannot make enough lift, and it drops. Pilots call that a stall.
Big idea: Systems. A straw and two hoops do nothing alone. Put them together in the right order and they fly.
Try it: trade height for distance
Flight lab
Design a hoop glider and throw it. Change the hoops, the spacing, and the throw to see what flies best.
Missions
Finish all four missions to earn the Test Pilot badge.
Design it
The dashed line is your last flight, so you can compare. Hoop sizes are measured across the hoop.
Flight numbers
Throw your glider to see how it flies.
My flights
| Front | Back | Apart | Throw | Distance | Air time |
|---|
Your flights will show up here, newest on top.
This lab is a model. A real hoop glider will not match these numbers exactly, but the patterns are the same.
Build it
The build plans are locked
Earn every badge to open them. You still need:
You earned it. Time to make a real one.
How to build your hoop glider
You need: a straight straw, an index card, tape, scissors, and a ruler.
- Cut the index card the long way into 3 strips. Each strip is 1 inch wide and 5 inches long.
- Tape two of the strips together, end to end, to make one long strip.
- Curl the long strip into a big hoop. Overlap the ends a little and tape them.
- Curl the last strip into a small hoop. Overlap the ends a little and tape them.
- Tape the big hoop onto one end of the straw. Tape the small hoop onto the other end. Line them up so you can look straight through both hoops.
- Hold the straw in the middle with the hoops on top. Point the small hoop forward.
- Give it a smooth, level push, like throwing a dart.
Stay safe: everyone throws the same direction, and nobody throws toward faces.
The plan
Test like a scientist
Change only one thing at a time. Throw each design three times from the same line. Measure how far it flies in meters, feet, or floor tiles.
| What I changed | Throw 1 | Throw 2 | Throw 3 | Average |
|---|
Ideas to test: slide the hoops closer together, make the back hoop from three strips, turn the glider around so the big hoop leads, or add a paper clip to the nose.