Paper Helicopter Experiment

Over recent years, we've observed a significant decline in website usage, likely attributed to our pdf templates being shared by the students and distributed internally by the educators. While we are humbled by the widespread utilization and the value our service provides, the reduced usage has impacted our ability to continue maintaining this platform, and we are falling way short of recovering the initial development costs.

We kindly invite those who have found value in our service to consider supporting our work. Your contribution, through placing an order, will greatly assist in keeping this platform operational and could pave the way for future enhancements and additional resources. You may also support us by spreading the word and sharing a link to our website within your professional and social networks!

If you are a teacher, we encourage you, rather than redistributing our templates, to place a link to the paper helicopter experiment website on your design of experiments course homepage:

...this way, you empower your students with the choice to either utilize our paid service and save time or to create the templates by themselves - which mirrors the types of constraints an experimental planner would encounter in real life.

If you are a student and receive our templates from your teacher - we'd like you to be aware that this isn't fair to us or to other students who choose to support our work. We'd appreciate your understanding and adherence to fair usage practices.

And for both students and teachers - if you stumble upon our templates on platforms other than this website - there may be a chance of theft or unauthorized reproduction, which harms us greatly. We kindly urge you to reach out to us if you encounter such instances, as we value the integrity of the content that we provide and the fair use by those who genuinely seek to learn and explore through our service. Regrettably, we have come across situations where our materials have been misappropriated - even showcased without authorization in a peer-reviewed article, see e.g. Figure 2 in Cristea, G., Constantinescu, D. M., Andreescu, C., and Iozsa, M. D. (2018), A study about how to use experimental design to increase the efficiency in a research project. The latter (and the fact that the authors copy-pasted parts of text from our website, without even bothering to change it, see e.g. last paragraph on p.3 and the second paragraph with bullet points on p.4; and also used our pdf templates to perform their experiments without citing the source) makes us question the ethical standards upheld in academic and professional domains, and arguably, provides a legitimate reason for us to worry about further misuse.

Finally, here are the five compelling reasons to do it for real:

1. Foster responsible decision-making

Real-life experiments come with a cost, creating a scenario where every decision matters. Paper Helicopter Experiment project mirrors this reality, but at a smaller scale. A nominal fee for each paper helicopter serves as a motivating factor for meticulous experimental planning, which in turn, enriches your learning experience, if undertaken seriously.

2. Time-efficiency

Crafting paper helicopter templates manually or through software like MATLAB can easily consume 3-4 hours to say the least. The time you save far outweighs the cost of letting us produce paper helicopter templates for you. In addition, even minor errors, such as measurement inaccuracies or duplicate helicopters, could mean even more time spent making corrections during the analysis phase. Opting for our streamlined process not only saves you time but also spares you from potential pitfalls.

3. A user-friendly, ad-free platform

We prioritize a seamless and enjoyable user experience over advertisements. Our platform neither tracks your activity nor bombards you with unwanted subscriptions or ads. This ad-free environment aids in focusing on the core objective — learning Design of Experiments through a paper helicopter project — uninterrupted.

4. Contribute to continuous improvement

From 2011 to 2019, we offered printable paper helicopter templates at no cost. The effort to build and sustain this platform has been substantial, with recurring expenses for hosting, maintenance, and extra developments. While the contributions for printable paper helicopter templates won't amass wealth, they are pivotal in keeping this platform alive. Your support not only helps in maintaining the website but also holds the potential for future enhancements, driven by collective interest.

5. Costs less than a lunch

Doing the entire paper helicopter experiment project costs less than what you would spend on a lunch. If the students do the project in groups, the price drops even further. Plus, the time you save is worth way more than what you spend. We believe it’s a matter of honor to support the service and truly commit to the project by doing it for real.