GRAND RAPIDS — Have you ever wondered why birds fly in a v shape? It all has to do with the wind. The world revolves around weather! From the clothes you choose to wear each day to even the reason why birds fly the way they do. Today we will learn more about wind resistance with our experiment. Lets get started!
What you need:
- Construction paper
- Markers
- Scissors
- A fan
Step 1: Cut construction paper into wide strips
Step 2: Draw birds on the piece of paper
Step 3: Turn fan on and try to hold the piece of paper flat against the fan
Step 4: Now fold the paper in half and hold it up to the fan like the letter “v”. Watch the difference in what happens with the paper
We just saw wind resistance in action! Wind resistance is the force that an object needs to overcome when it moves through the air, when the air moves over the object or the combination of both.
There’s something called drag which is the force that acts in the opposite direction to an object moving through the air. This is when air hits the front of an object and slows it down. The more surface area of an object the greater the resistance it has to overcome.
So why do birds fly in a v shape then? Scientists have determined the v shape is used for two purposes; to conserve their energy and to reduce wind resistance since each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of him.
There you have it, we learned more about wind resistance! Send our meteorologist Candace Monacelli your pictures doing this experiments at home! She will feature future meteorologists on my Facebook page daily!
