Super Spinner

Skills
observing
communicating
comparing
relating
applying

Materials
(per group)
scissors
copy of Super Spinner
paper clip

Doing the Activity

  1. Cut out the Super Spinner model along the outer edge.
  2. Cut on the dotted line between the two wings.
  3. Bend one wing forward and the other in the opposite direction.
  4. Add a paper clip to the tail section.
  5. Try flying your Super Spinner.
  6. Try to modify your Super Spinner to:
    Spin more rapidly
    Land accurately in a predetermined spot
    Hang in the air longer
    Perform a trick

Talking it over

  • Show your modified Super Spinner to someone else and explain what you changed and how it makes your Super Spinner act different.

  • Have you seen other things in the real world that work like your Super Spinner?

What's Happening
As the spinner starts to spin, it generates lift just like an airplane wing. This causes it to fall to the ground slowly. The paper clip lowers the center of gravity on the spinner and makes it more stable as it falls. The lift is caused by an unba lanced pressure on the rotors as it spins. The principle of lift was first described by a scientist named Bernoulli.

More Challenges

Construct and try out a new Super Spinner. Some changes that you might try to include: creating a smaller or larger Super Spinner; adding more weight to the tail section; changing the shape of the wings; using a different kind of paper to construct y our Super Spinner.

Activity Source
National Science & Technology Week Activity Packet, 1996. National Science Foundation.

Iowa State University
University Extension

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Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Stanley R. Johnson, director, Cooperative Extension Service, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa.

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Super Spinner Pattern