Della Porta Kite Project
By: Emma D.
Kite Math Problem #1
Answer: Well, if Pocock traveled 60 miles in 2 hours, he would be moving at 30 mph. You can get that by dividing 60 by two. But, later on in the problem it says that the carriage would be moving at HALF the speed as current cars so you would divide 30 by 2. If you solve this, you will end up with 15 mph. THE FINAL ANSWER: George Pocock was moving at 15 mph. on that ride.
Kite Math Problem #2
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: Well, you have to change the 180 hours to minutes. Do this by multiplying 180 by 60. You will get 10,800. Then add the 17 minutes. You will get 10,817. Finally, you divide this number by 18, the amount of workers. You will get 1352.125. You have to round this number so the final answer is 1352 shifts.
Q.and A.
A: I feel making a model kite in math was important for making our actual kite in science because it helped me understand kites better. Before walking into math class the day we made our model kites, all I knew about kites was that we were making them in class, somewhat knew how to make a Della Porta kite, and a few fun facts about Della Porta kites. I was actually farther ahead than my peers because of previous knowledge of flight of airplanes. Making the model kite was a hands on way to experiment with kite making. Because of the model kite I did, I had a better understanding of kites and how to create them with your own hands. Below is a picture of how I broke up my model kite to find the surface area.