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Beginner's
Guide to Propulsion
Range and Fuel Consumption
Subject Area(s):
Mathematics,
Technology Education
Grade Level:
6-8
National
Standards:
Mathematics
- Mathematics
as Problem Solving:
- Formulate
problems from situations within and outside mathematics.
- Verify
and interpret results with respect to the original problem situation.
- Generalize
solutions and strategies to new problem situations.
- Mathematics
as Communication:
- Model situations
using oral, written, concrete, pictorial, graphical, and algebraic
methods.
- Reflect
on and clarify their own thinking about mathematical ideas and
situations.
- Use the
skills of reading, listening, and viewing to interpret and evaluate
mathematical ideas.
- Mathematics
as Reasoning:
- Recognize
and apply deductive and inductive reasoning.
- Make
and evaluate mathematical conjectures and arguments.
- Mathematical
Connections:
- Explore
problems and describe results using graphical, numerical, physical,
algebraic, and verbal mathematical models or representations.
- Use a mathematical
idea to further their understanding of other mathematical ideas.
- Number Systems
and Number Theory:
- Understand
how the basic arithmetic operations are related to one another.
- Computation
and Estimation:
- Computer
with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, integers, and rational
numbers.
- Select
and use an appropriate method for computing from among mental
arithmetic, paper-and-pencil, calculator, and computer methods.
- Use estimation
to check the reasonableness of results.
Technology
- Research
Tools - Use content-specific tools, software and simulations
(e.g., environmental probes, graphing calculators, exploratory environments,
Web tools) to support learning and research.
- Problem-Solving
and Decision-Making Tools - Routinely and efficiently use on-line
information resources to meet needs for collaboration, research,
publications, communications, and productivity.
Objectives:
After reading
the explanation given below, use the Beginner's
Guide to Propulsion and the Internet to complete the activity on
determining a plane's range and/or fuel consumption given a variety
of clues.
Many aspects of flight are extremely important, two of which are knowing
your aircraft's range and fuel consumption. Knowing these two pieces
of information is similar to knowing how many miles you and your parents
can travel in your automobile on one tank of gasoline. However, running
out of fuel in a car is much less dangerous than running out of fuel in
an airplane (for obvious reasons!).
The Beginner's
Guide to Propulsion is a Web site of information prepared by the NASA Glenn
Research Center to help you better understand aircraft engine propulsion.
In the Propulsion
Index, under Aircraft Motion open the slide entitled Range
- Constant Velocity and review the information. Next, locate Fundamentals
in the Propulsion Index. Open
the slide entitled Newton's
First Law, and review the information provided. Use the material
in the slides as background information to help you complete the activity.
In the activity, you will be answering questions based on the range and
fuel consumption of the airplanes available to you in Microsoft Flight
Simulator '95.
To begin the activity,
click on Range and Fuel Consumption.
Assessment:
You, or
you and your partner(s), will be evaluated on the accuracy and/or feasibility
of your answers.
Evaluation:
You will
demonstrate the ability to determine the range and fuel consumption
of various airplanes, given a variety of clues.
Submitted by:
Devon Williams, J. P. McConnell Middle School, Loganville, Georgia
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