Physical description and modelling of paper strip flights

TL;DR

This paper models the physics of paper strip flights, analyzing their rotation, fall speed, and trajectory based on dimensions and mass, providing formulas and visualizations for their motion.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive physical model of paper strip flight, including formulas for fall speed, rotation frequency, and trajectory, based on empirical observations.

Findings

Derived formulas for fall speed and rotation frequency.

Validated model with experimental data.

Visualized air turbulence effects.

Abstract

Paper strips, e.g. confetti, descending to the floor begin to rotate around the horizontal axis after a short time. This slows down the vertical velocity compared to free fall and adds a horizontal velocity component. The frequency of rotation, the angle of fall and the speed of fall seem to depend on the dimensions and mass of the paper strips. The physics of this flight can be described, i.e. the movement, the translation of the centroid (energy analysis, force analysis, formula for fall speed v(b,h,m), formula for angle of fall {\alpha}(b,h,m)), the rotation around centroid (formula for frequency f(b,h,m), rotation speed), the flight path with the results from translation and rotation, the visualization of air turbulence and the loss of energy.