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SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member
Activities
TeachEngineering Hands-on
Activity:
*Building Tetrahedral Kites
TeachEngineering Digital Library:
teachengineering.org
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
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• The TeachEngineering digital library provides over
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daily lives.
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Reference Activity on TeachEngineering
• Learn about manufacturing systems by building (and flying)
a kite!
• Engineering focus:
o Manufacturing and Engineering Analysis
• Follow instructions to manufacture a kite and apply
engineering analysis to evaluate the efficiency of the
process.
• Learning objectives:
o Explain basic elements of flight.
o Construct a tetrahedral kite.
o Describe basic manufacturing systems and processes.
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
• Suggested time: 75 minutes
• Materials
o kite string
o 60 7¾ inch (~20 cm) straws
o 2-3 ft. streamers
o Kite Template & Instructions
o scotch tape or glue sticks
o 4 sheets of tissue paper
o 1 pipe cleaner
o scissors
o pencil
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Engineering Connection (Real World Application):
• From kite racing to hang-gliders, kites have come a long way in the past
2000 years. Then again, even with the information available to us today,
kite design is a challenge due to the number of variables associated with it.
• This activity focuses on the industrial engineering aspect bringing out the
importance of efficient manufacturing processes.
Delta kite
Spinning kite
Kite Flying by Suzuki
Harunobu, 1766 (Metropolitan
Museum of Art)
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Vocabulary
Terms
Definitions
drag
A frictional force acting on a body (as an airplane) moving through a fluid (as air) parallel and
opposite to the direction of motion.
lift
The component of the total aerodynamic force acting on an airplane or airfoil that is
perpendicular to the relative wind and that for an airplane constitutes the upward force that
opposes the pull of gravity.
gravity
A force of attraction between two objects due to the mass of the objects and the distance
separating them.
tension
Two pulling forces directly opposing each other that stretch an object. Tension in the string
keeps a kite from flying away.
relative wind
industrial
engineering
The airflow produced by the aircraft moving through the air. The relative wind is in a
direction parallel with and opposite to the direction of flight.
A branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is
concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated
system. The term originally applied to manufacturing, but has grown to encompass any
methodical or quantitative approach to being efficient in how a process, system or
organization operates.
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Diagrams showing forces acting on a kite
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
o Kites were the first flying devices ever made by humans.
o The word "kite" comes from a bird in the hawk family known for its grace in
the air.
o Kites come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes and have been used for
many purposes throughout history, although today, kite flying is done largely
for recreation.
o Recommended resources to learn more about kites, including history, how
they fly and how to build a kite:
• http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~s.stapleton/kites/build.html
• http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~et3m-tkkw/history-table.html
• http://www.skratch-pad.com/kites/fly.html
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
o Do you know how a plane flies? Believe it or not, it is all because of the
unique shape of the airplane's wings!
o Lift is the force that opposes gravity, allowing a plane to fly. It’s a
mechanical aerodynamic force produced by the motion of the airplane
through the air.
• There are many explanations for how lift is generated, found in
encyclopedias, in basic physics textbooks, and on Web sites.
Unfortunately, many of the explanations are misleading and incorrect.
• Lift occurs when a moving flow of gas (air!) is turned by a solid object.
The flow is turned in one direction, and the lift is generated in the
opposite direction, according to Newton's Third Law based on action
and reaction.
• Because air is a gas and the molecules are free to move about, any
solid surface can deflect a flow. For an aircraft wing, both the upper
and lower surfaces contribute to the flow turning. (Note: Neglecting the
upper surface's part in turning the flow leads to an incorrect theory of
lift.)
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
o A little more information about lift:
• Lift is generated by the difference in velocity between the solid object
(plane and its wings) and the fluid (air).
• There must be motion between the object and the fluid. It makes no
difference whether the object moves through a static (stationary) fluid,
or the fluid moves past a static solid object.
• Lift acts perpendicular to the motion. Drag acts in the direction opposed
to the motion.
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Introduction:
o In today's activity, you will apply this mechanism of flight to designing
tetrahedral kites.
o You will build a tetrahedral kite following a specific set of instructions and
using specific provided materials.
o You will use basic processes found in many manufacturing systems - cutting,
shaping, forming, conditioning, assembling, joining, finishing, and quality
control - to manufacture a complete tetrahedral kite within a given time
frame.
o Pay attention to the quality of the finished kite!
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure Overview
• Use basic manufacturing processes to efficiently create a kite. The
Kite Template & Instructions handout provides illustrations to help
explain the steps in the Procedure; it is very helpful to look at the
illustrations while following the steps below!
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 1: Making Pyramids
1. Obtain six straws, measure and cut a 72" (182.88 cm) long piece of
kite string. Thread 4 straws on the kite string. Hold on to the ends.
Keep approximately 3" (7.62 cm) of string towards end A.
2. Arrange the straws onto a diamond shape and use the pipe
cleaner "needle" to feed the string through the starter straw, so
that it comes out between straw 1 and straw 2.
3. Add the fifth straw and place it across the center of the diamond.
4. Feed the "needle" back through the third straw so that it comes
out between straw 2 and 3.
5. Add the sixth straw. Pull up the straws so that a triangle is formed.
Tie it off so that your triangles form a stable pyramid shape. Now,
using steps 1-5 make 9 more pyramids!
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite
6. Using the template, carefully trace and cut out 20 tissue paper
shapes.
7. Cover two sides of each pyramid with tissue paper. Fold the edges
of the tissue paper around the straw and glue in place.
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite (continued)
8. Assemble the kite.
•
•
•
•
•
Begin with the bottom layer. Arrange three pyramids side by side
so that they only touch by one corner and the front of each is a
covered panel (all of the covered panels should lie in a plane).
The other covered panel should be lying flat on the table.
Knot the pyramids at the points where they meet.
Arrange two pyramids behind those three so that the front
covered panels of the two new pyramids faces the same direction
as the front three. The back corners of the front three just meet the
front corners of the two behind. Knot the two pyramids at all points
that touch.
Attach one more pyramid to the back corners of the row with two,
again facing the covered panel forward.
Be sure that all knots are secure!
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite (continued)
9. Add the second layer of pyramids.
•
Arrange two pyramids side by side (make sure the covered
panels are on the bottom and front). Knot them to each other.
•
Align the bottom corners of these two with the peaks of the
front five pyramids on the bottom layer. Knot these two
pyramids to the bottom layer.
•
Arrange and attach a third triangle behind the two you just
attached. Be sure that all knots are secure!
10. Add the third and final layer. Attach a single pyramid on top of
the second level still having the covered panel facing forward.
The finished kite itself looks like a giant pyramid. Be sure that all
knots are secure!
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 2: Building the Kite (continued)
11. Attach kite strings to the corners where the
front panel meets the back panel. With the
strings here, the panels will face downward
when in flight and the triangles will look like
birds in flight.
12. Add a tail using the streamers to keep the kite
properly oriented towards the wind.
Phase 3: Flying Your Kite
13. Check the knotting. Attach flying string. Go
out and fly your kite!
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Procedure
Phase 4: Analysis of Manufacturing
Consider the following questions:
• How well did you work to build your kite? Were you efficient?
Where was time wasted? What were the problems?
• Did you follow the specific instructions and use the specified
materials? Did you finish on time? How was the quality of the end
product?
• Describe all the basic manufacturing system processes you used
(cutting, shaping, forming, conditioning, assembling, joining,
finishing, and quality control).
• What improvements would you make to the kite-making process?
• What is industrial engineering? How is the kite-making you did
today a type of industrial engineering?
SHPE Foundation
Online SHPE Jr. Member Activities
Building Tetrahedral Kites
Investigating Questions
o How and why do objects (such as plane and kites) move upward
against the force of gravity?
o Why do kites fly?
o How can a person, or group of people, most efficiently produce a
finished product – the tetrahedral kite – using manufacturing
processes?
o How will modifications of the project's initial design alter the kite's
performance?
Activity Extensions
o Alter the design and make a new kite. Test your new kite that
follows your own design against the tetrahedral kite you made
following the instructions. How do the kites compare in their
performance?
SHPE Foundation
SHPE Jr. Chapter Curriculum
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Questions?
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