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Paper Airplane Designs

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Re: Paper Airplane Designs

#32

In the 90's I went to a small middle school, the 8th grade class was 21 people. Once, the school had a contest in the indoor gym, we each designed paper planes and the one who flew it the farthest won a prize. We argued with teachers over an allowance for a little bit of tape, which some of us used just as nose weight. However, each kid was the one to "fly" his own plane, a big oversight. Almost the last kid, when it…

We did the same in elementary school. The winning plane was essentially a dart hurled at a 45 degree angle. It didn't fly per se, but did get launched pretty far.

Re: Paper Airplane Designs

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you give me a realistic physics environment to train an agent in I'll do it for you.

I wonder if anyone has attempted to use machine learning to try and build a realistic physics environment. I feel like that would be super interesting.

Many people have attempted, but its still and unsolved problem with fluid physics.

Re: Paper Airplane Designs

#37
post #15

In the 90's I went to a small middle school, the 8th grade class was 21 people. Once, the school had a contest in the indoor gym, we each designed paper planes and the one who flew it the farthest won a prize. We argued with teachers over an allowance for a little bit of tape, which some of us used just as nose weight. However, each kid was the one to "fly" his own plane, a big oversight. Almost the last kid, when it…

Similar story from a university aero course that ended with a paper airplane competition. There were some remarkable paper airplanes, making amazing flights, all sorts of research and time went into developing the ideal model. One guy comes up representing his team and he gets out a piece of rolling paper and a lighter. Tears the tiniest portion off the rolling paper, sets it alight, and then follows it with his fing…

> follows it with his finger through the air as it took forever to land on the ground.

Sounds interesting, but I'm confused. So is he walking in front of it, and the flame is pulled toward his finger? Did it travel the farthest that way?

Re: Paper Airplane Designs

#38

In the 90's I went to a small middle school, the 8th grade class was 21 people. Once, the school had a contest in the indoor gym, we each designed paper planes and the one who flew it the farthest won a prize. We argued with teachers over an allowance for a little bit of tape, which some of us used just as nose weight. However, each kid was the one to "fly" his own plane, a big oversight. Almost the last kid, when it…

I was under the impression that these competitions get judged mostly by flight time, not distance - at least that's what one I participated in did.

Ironically, my sister won that one with my design and won a 30-min flight in a "real" glider. That was probably ten years ago and I'm still sour.

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