The Effect of Pitch and Surface Area of a Propeller on an Engine
This experiment determines whether the effect of the pitch of a model airplane's propeller is more significant than the effect of the propeller's surface area on the resulting thrust of the engine. To establish this, a model airplane propeller on a wooden cart was attached to a force sensor which measured the thrust. After the trials were performed and the data was collected, three two-sample t-tests were conducted. It was concluded that there is significant evidence of a difference between the standard and the propellers with a different pitch and surface area. Therefore, using different propeller types would create a difference in the forward motion of an airplane. This study is relevant today because it is important to know which propeller to use in different situations, and the fact that different propellers create different amounts of thrust can affect which propeller is chosen.
Research Done By:
Justin Soeder
Sterling Heights High School
Allison Spaeth
Sterling Heights High School
Warren Consolidated Schools