7-2-I-Search-Tyler

= The Mechanics of Flying = by Tyler media type="custom" key="800799"

**Introduction**
In my life, I've come across the idea of flying many times. As a kid, I always thought it would be cool to fly like superman or an airplane or bird. I mean, who hasn't want to be Superman and fly for a day? Even now, I wonder how birds and planes fly. Until recently, I never thought about not being able to fly during my lifetime. So, I was wondering what needs to be done in order for me to fly. A graphic novel called Air Gear that I read was about the future where there were roller blades that could fly. It was good but didn't sound very realistic. This novel is what made me really want to know how the action of "flight" actually works and find out if roller blades will be able to fly someday. I think it would be very cool to understand the mechanics of flight.

**Body**
The first thing I did when I thought about research was Wikipedia. I went there for basic info but I forgot that Wikipedia can't be used as a source. Because of this, I looked at the external links and found the website [|http://www.av8n.com/how/] I thought that the website was pretty good. Its sort of like a very long online book. When I looked through the chapter names, unfortunately, many of the chapters were not what I was looking for. Many of them were complicated. However, I did find some that looked easy and informative. For example, I learned there are four types of energy that are crucially important for airplanes, namely: potential energy, which is proportional to the airplane’s altitude, kinetic energy, which is proportional to the square of the airspeed, the chemical energy in the fuel; and finally the energy left behind in the air as the plane passes through, stirring the air and leaving it slightly warmer. (http://www.av8n.com/how/ Chapter 1) Now I need to find the resource that can teach me the fundamentals of bird flight.

During my research, I used the very useful tips I learned from Tech class for searching in search engines. In the class, I learned that when you use the "boolean operator" symbols, it can narrow down your search. The "boolean operator" symbols are the + and - signs. The + sign adds things to what you are searching for. The minus sign lets you take something out of your search. You can also put quotations around more than one word so it searches it as a phrase. I did not use the quotations but i did use the "boolean operator" symbols. It is a really important and effective way to research when you want to get info on a very specific topic. what I needed was info on flight for birds, NOT airplanes. So, i made my search fly +how to -airplane +birds. The first website that came up was http://wings.avkids.com/Book/Animals/intermediate/birds-01.html This site was made for kids, making it very easy to understand while having very good information. I learned that birds are basically created for flying. For example, a bird's tail is used to balance and steer while flying. The tail also acts as a break when turned downward. ([|http://wings.avkids.com/Book/Animals/intermediate/birds-01.html)] The way a bird flies is obviously its wings but I still don't really know how it works. I am planning to interview a teacher at the Aviation High School.

I tried to get an interview with the teacher at Aviation but it was too hard. Instead, I interviewed my uncle who is also a physics teacher and he is former engineer. I interviewed him via e-mail. I sent him questions that I hoped that he can explain. I asked him the questions like; How do birds and airplanes fly? Are there any similarities or differences in the way birds fly? He told me how birds and planes actually are able to fly with their wings. I learned that "wings are built so that the upper surface is curved more than the bottom. This means that the air moves more quickly over the top surface, and thus the dynamic pressure is reduced. Since the pressure on the top part of the wing is less than the pressure on the bottom part of the wing, there is a net force directed upwards. This net force is called "lift"." (Interview with Gregory Bell) He also told me that the birds and planes fly with the same principles. The principle is pressure differential. Pressure is force/unit area. The unit area of the wings don't change so pressure is directly related to force. If there is a large pressure, there is also a large force.

**Conclusion**
Through all my research, I've learned a lot. I learned how birds and planes fly through pressure differential which I really wanted to know. I think it was very nice to learn about something I was wondering about. Now I know that as long as I can get wings that are shaped like birds, I could actually fly one day. My dream of flying on roller blades may be impossible but the the graphic novel [|Air Gear] really did inspire me to write this I-Search paper. Everyday, we see birds flying in the sky and many airplanes taking off to distant countries. We just think its normal and ordinary but, there is truly a lot of science and principles behind it.

"Aerodynamics of Animals-Birds-Intermediate." __The K-8 Aeronautics Internet Textbook__. 9 Apr. 2008 <[|http://wings.avkids.com/Book/Animals/intermediate/birds-01.html>]
 * Works Cited**

Bell, Gregory. E-Mail interview. 13 Apr. 2008.

"See How It Flies." __AV8N__. 5 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.av8n.com/how/>]