Sorry I couldn’t blog sooner, but I was really busy last week.  Here’s what happened: When I got to the University of California research labs in Merced, I met Mr. Viney and we got straight to work.  I showed him a diagram of a maple seed I sketched at home.  We also looked at the flight of actual maple seed.  I had brought a baggie of maple seeds from Delaware because I thought it would be useful to have them because there are not very many in California. 

Mr. Viney drew me a diagram explaining the thrust, drag, lift, and gravity effects on a wing.  If an airplane is taking off, the lift has to be more than gravity, and thrust has to be more than drag, and vice versa for landing.  When the plane is in the air everything is about even, except the thrust is a little higher than drag so it moves forward. On a maple seed, the lift has to be a tiny bit lower than gravity because it still has to drop, but it has to drop very slowly so the seed is not harmed.  A maple seed design would be good for dropping emergency supplies because the design causes it to fall, but slowly so nothing breaks.

 

 

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