Imagine It! Build It! Fly It!
By: Claire V.
About My Della Porta Kite:
My Della Porta kite is the best kite because it is a simple kite that is very easy to fly and is relatively cheap. It has a three point bridle that gives it good support as well as four sturdy dowels to help keep the kite from being floppy, making it fly better. Although the design is not traditional, its unique design is very fun and festive. Even the wire is sturdy fishing line that will hold up well in strong winds. In addition, our kite has a large surface area that will help trap wind.
Sorry its sideways!
Blue Print
This model uses the measurements of 97 cm long, 73 cm wide, 120 cm dowels, and 93 cm dowels.
Surface Area:
When we had to find the surface area of our kite, we split our kites into shapes, but my group had a Della Porta kite, which is a simple rectangle. So, instead of dividing my rectangle into more shapes we kept it how it was and just multiplied the base times the height to get the surface area.
Our final answer was 7,081 cm squared.
Model
Making the model in math helped me when I made my kite in science because I got to try different ways to make it and it helped me realize that I was not putting the bridle on the wrong side. Making a model kite in science also helped me understand how to make the kite quicker, so it wouldn't take me a long time making my real kite in science. If I wouldn't have made the model kite I would have made the kite wrong and caused it not to fly at all.
Kite Math
Problem One
PROBLEM ONE: In 1820, George Pocock connected several large kites to a carriage and pulled it from Southampton to London. Since road taxes were based on the number of horses used to pull a carriage, he was able to avoid any taxes! The 60 mile trip two hours. Modern kite buggies now go twice as fast, but seldom go as far. How fast was the carrige moving?
Answer:
The kite drawn carriage was going 30 miles per hour. I got this by dividing the miles by how long it took to reach the destination. That would mean that modern kite buggies go 60 miles an hour!
Problem Three
PROBLEM THREE: Under the direction of Harry Osborne, the Edmonds Community College kite team kept a parafoil in the air from August 21 to August 29, 1982. Their 180 hour, 17 minute flight created a world record for duration flying. If there we eight members of the team, and each took three hour shifts watching the kite, how many shifts would each team member be responsible for?
Answer:
Each team member would be responsible for 7.5 shifts on flying the kite. I got this by first by dividing 180 hours by the eight team members and got 22.5. Then, I divided 22.5 by three to get 7.5 shifts. After that, I checked my work by multiplying the hours in a shift by the number of shifts I had gotten. The product was 22.5 hours per person. Then, I multiplied the hours per person by how many members were on the team and got 180, the total that I wanted to reach. The remainder of 17 minutes would go to one person whose turn it was and that was when the kite fell unexpectedly, so you would not divide up the last 17 minutes that the kite flew.
Problem Four
PROBLEM FOUR: The largest kites built in Japan are flown in Hoshubana every May. The kites are 36 feet wide and 48 feet tall with bridle lines more than 100 feet long. It takes fifty members of the O-dako (Giant Kite) Association to launch this giant creation. Each team member is suitably uniformed in a traditional festival jacket that matches the kite. The kite is made from individual pieces of rice paper, each glued together at the edges. If each sheet is 18 inches wide and 24 inches tall, how many sheets are needed to create the sail of this Japanese kite?
Answer:
The O-dako Association would need 576 sheets of rice paper. I got this by converting the kite's height and width into inches and then multiplying them together to get the area of the kite in inches, getting the answer 248,832 inches. Then, I multiplied the height and width of one sheet of rice paper and got an area of 432 inches. Lastly, I divided 248,832 by 432 to get 576.