You will need:
- A regular plastic drinking straw
- 3 X 5 inch strips of card
- Tape
- Scissors
What to do
- Cut the card into 3 separate strips that measure approximately 2.5 cm by 13 cm
- Take 2 of the strips and tape them together into a hoop. (Overlap the pieces about 1cm so that they keep a nice round shape once taped.)
- Use the last strip of paper to make a smaller hoop, overlapping the edges a bit more.
- Tape the paper loops to the ends of the straw. (Notice that the straw is lined up on the inside of the loops)
- That’s it! Now, hold the straw in the middle with the hoops on top and throw it in the air similar to how you might throw a dart angled slightly up. With some practice, you can get it to go farther than many paper airplane.
How does it work?
Can we really call that a plane? It may look weird, but you will discover it flies surprisingly well. The two sizes of hoops help to keep the straw balanced as it flies. The big hoop creates “drag” (or air resistance) which helps keep the straw level while the smaller hoop in at the front keeps your super hooper from turning off course.
MAKE IT AN EXPERIMENT
To make it a true experiment, you can try to answer these questions:
- Does the placement of the hoops on the straw affect its flight distance?
- Does the length of straw affect the flight? (You can cut the straws or attach straws together to test this)
- Do more hoops help the hoop glider to fly better?
- Do the hoops have to be lined up in order for the plane to fly well?
Please let us know how you get on – we love to see your pictures.
