What is a simple explaination of why paper airplanes fly?

Question

What is a simple explaination of why paper airplanes fly?

Answer 1

They are light weight and they have wings that are airfoil shape that cut through the air and the surface area on the wings force the air down, and the plane up. This is called lift. The larger the wingspan, the more air hitting the wing (faster it goes) the better it performs. As soon as it runs out of forward momentum, it cannot provide lift to the airframe, and it falls.

Answer 2

they are paper so they are light and can float like maaaaaaaaaagic!

lol

Answer 3

well lets put it this way, if u stick ur hand out of the window of a fast moving car u feel the air pushing ur hand back, now if ur hand is vertical u feel lot of pressure and if its horizontal u wont feel it much!! now if u hold ur hand at a slight angle from horizontal upwards, u will feel the air pushin ur hand back AND abit upwards! try it, it myt not be obviose but u can feel it!

now thats the explination i can give, the paper plains wings usually have a slight angle with the direction they r moving (called angle of attack in aeronatics) depending on the person who has made the plain!

the bigger this angle is the higher the plain goes but for shorter amount of time since the air pushes the plain back harder (like when u have ur hand vertical) and causes it to loose alot of speed and eventually just fall, and smaller the angle is, it makes the plain "cruise" for longer without gettin any hight and if the angle is 0 as in PERFECTLY horizontal then the plain will fall like any other object!

the angle can also be negetive sometimes (like holding ur hand at an angle lower than horizontal), which would work the exact opposite and push the plain down instead of flying, thats why sometimes some paper plains just simply head for the ground as soon as u throw them!

so yea in simple terms: a plain object moving though air experiances a force backwards (drag) and upwards (life), the more the angle of the plain from horizontal is the more upward force and backward force will become!! so the paper plains angle which is usually random cz no1 really pays attention to it is usually a small angle which makes a small upward force and small backward force!!

the upward force holds the plain in air, but that upward force depends on speed aswell so when the backward force slows the plain down theres not enough up force and the plain falls!

hope that helped :P (and im too lazy to double check wat i wrote so, sorry for grammer and punctuation and other lame mistakes :P)  

Answer 4

Its thrust and lift forces combine are greater then drag and weight forces combine therefor it fly.

Answer 5

Air has a thickness to it. If you swing your hand around, or stick your hand out of the window of a moving car,  you can feel the thickness of the air. Paper is very lightweight, and when you throw a paper airplane into the air, it glides around on the "thick" air for a short time. Sometimes you will hear people call it "laminar air" (like layers of air).

Real airplanes actually fly on a different principle, in which the wings create a pressure difference between the top and bottom surfaces.