Three! Two! One!
You've probably tried to make a paper airplane at some point in your
life and if you're anything like me it probably flew about three and a half
feet and went straight into the ground. Well, what if you could try again but, you
know, as an adult? Even better, what if you had the decades of knowledge of a
diverse team of experts?
My name is Andrew foot and I'm president of paper
outlet here in New York City. I am the paper expert.
My name is Leif and I am the aerodynamics expert. I am professor of mathematics at NYU and I
study fluid dynamics mathematics and physics.
My name is Frank Ling, I'm the paper folding expert, I work for Taro's Origami
Studio in Brooklyn, and I've been doing origami for 22 years.
We're putting our team of bonafide specialists up against three awesome kids.
My name is Jonah, I'm 10 years old, and when I grow up I want to be a filmmaker.
My name is Micah, I am 7, and I want to be an astronaut
My name is Nairobi, I am 10 years old and I want to be an archaeologist.
We'll see who can build the best paper airplane, but more than that, we'll learn about the surprisingly
wide breadth of expertise that goes into making a seemingly simple piece of
folded paper. This is Kids Vs. Science.
I've been studying the aerodynamics of paper airplanes recently in order to figure out exactly what makes a paper
airplane glide stably. My first thought when I heard about making paper
airplanes was, you know, something I've done many times before.
Pretty solid standard origami bit to have, so I'm excited for this.
My understanding would be more grain direction and how it would fold and what
stocks would be too heavy, so trying to apply what I know about that to what
would make a good paper airplane.
Yes.
Part of me wants to say we'll crush the kids, but I've worked with a
lot of kids over the years and some of the stuff they come up with is, you know,
is quite amazing. As adults we're less creative we're less open-minded.
It could go either way.
No, just give me some paper.
Each team will be given one hour to plan, create, and test
their perfect paper airplanes. They will then be judged on distance, hang time, and
accuracy. May the best team win.
I sort of think of this as the base state, just
literally a plane made out of paper. A plane, a flat thing, and then what do
we have to do to make it fly? I hope I'm doing this right though I know for a fact that I'm not.
Why is it like that?
What happens to a plain piece of paper if you drop it in the air. There's maybe an
interesting thing to compare to a paper airplane. I give it a little helping
start.That guy. I mean this is a beautiful motion, but it's not what you
want from an airplane. Right? That type of thing.
Look at all this YouTube! Woah that's gonna be helpful!
It's all about balance right? The most basic thing we all do right is we add a little weight in front. That basic fold
there in the front is adding a little bit of weight that's giving it... That's
the way I was viewing it yeah. Something that stabilizes it right? Keeps its nose
pointed down as it travels through the air if it goes up it's gonna catch that
wind. By folding it over in front here and not here, you're having a double
layer or even more here right? So your balance point still is forward on this
thing right? Yeah. We call that the center of mass or center of gravity. I mean you
can't just like cut a triangle out of paper and have it work right? No, the folds are
what, you're getting a triangle shape but what you're getting are these folds that are weighing it, I got you.
So this is what I've gotten so far, I'm not done yet.
Guys I'm not done yet but I'm really close.
That's where the center of gravity has to be. And if you're too
far in front or too far behind you don't get a good flight. What about your
beautiful flyer, where is the balance point?
Right about there, it's a little more than 1/3.
Fold it, fold it over, and then fold it in half.
What do you recommend? Whatever stock you want. I like the colored stuff, I know that's not
aerodynamically important but I like the colored stuff. Pick a color we have
goldenrod, blue, orchid, pink.
Yeah we were spying on the other team.
Don't let them hear you!
You have all of these layers on top of each other, you start to
spread out a little bit up there. That's what you have to worry
about. And the only way to combat it is... you're always gonna have a little
bit of it, but as you fold everything over make sure that you tuck in as best you can.
I saw that their airplanes are really tiny.
So that the weight wouldn't be too much!
I know. I'm in the fifth grade.
You're folding all of them over on each other, they'll start to fan out. You can see it here.
Yeah mine were failures, yeah.
No I wouldn't call it a failure.
it's just the way paper behaves, right? It's a material that has thickness to it,
it's gonna behave not in the way... it's not like working with a perfect
flat plane or something.
Yeah but if you use less paper, they'll cut down less trees, which will save our lungs.
In origami you call this a book fold, it's just edge to edge.
So bring the long edges together. You could use both your hands.
Really make sure it's lined up first. And then we call it a kite fold, it's when
you're basically folding at a 45-degree angle off of the angle bisector. It's
never gonna exactly line up. With all your folds, if you're getting like 95%
there you're gonna be fine.
Just throw that out, please.
if this is full and unfolded too many times, things
just gonna flop open. Those fibers are going to become weaker and weaker and
weaker. Yeah you're breaking fibers with your finger you're cracking them. There's
a certain point, you know, you're not gonna get the plane that you want.
Three, two, one.
My GOD.
I think we're all set!
Ready to go disappoint some kids.
The experts decided to all use one design for their individual airplanes,
while the kids each made their own different plane for distance, hang time,
and accuracy.
I'm going first? Okay. I'm going first. And I can bend over this a little bit?
I call interference!
Okay, ready?
Ahh, it went down!
Ready? Three! Two! One!
Micah won! Micah won! Micah!
Everybody's gonna count, three two one go, alright?
Here we go! Three! Two! One! Go!
They won. Well done.
Wait, we won? We won?
Congratulations, well done. Congrats, good game, good game.
I kept walking into your room, going under your table and spying on you.
I saw that! I saw that.
Did you see it all the time?
Yeah! Every single time. Our best strategy we used was YouTube.
Folding tips? Well isn't origami all about patience?
Well yeah that's part of it, right. It's really taking your
time, don't rush whatever you're doing. Whenever you work with paper always take your time.
This is my advice: have someone guarding
the door at all times. You actually, I think you have the right instinct here, this is a
good, basic, 70-pound-- Wait it's 70 pounds??
I'll do the first fold I'm making sure
everything's lined up first. I'm holding it down. So what's the next step?
Good job make sure you crease it all the way up, especially to the tip.
Micah, are you ready?
Hey guys, I'm Justin, I had so much fun producing this video, the first in a new
series. If you liked it, too, and you want to see more episodes just like this, make
sure to comment below. And if you have any ideas for any fun activities we can
have kids and experts go head-to-head on, make sure to throw those in the
comments to. Like and subscribe to stay up-to-date with all things Mental Floss.
Thanks for watching.