Do different sizes of air holes in the plastic skirt affect the speed of the hovercraft? We think if the air holes on the bottom of the hovercraft are smaller it will go faster. Our hypothesis was partly right. We said that 1 ½ inch holes would make the hovercraft go the fastest. Our results show that 2 inch holes made the hovercraft go the fastest. The size of holes we guessed went the second fastest.
The type of floor will affect the speed of the hovercraft because if the floor was really bumpy, the hovercraft would leak air out of the bottom and not be able to hover as good. The size of person is another variable that could have affected the results. If the person’s weight changes the speed will change too. If there is too much weight our blower will not be able to lift the person and that will really affect the speed.
Another thing that could affect the results is where the person sits on the hovercraft .The rider must be sitting right in the center of the hovercraft. If the rider sits too far to one side then the hovercraft will tilt and air may escape out the other side of the plastic skirt. If a person sits too far to the front or back the hovercraft will “dig in” or drag on the ground, which will make it slow down.
If we had started or stopped the stopwatch too soon or too late we would get different results. To give us more and better results we could have used more hole sizes in the plastic skirt. Also we would make a longer travel distance and do more trials with each size of hole.
If we got to change our problem we would change it to “Do different types of skirts on a hovercraft affect the speed?” In the future a hovercraft could be a main source of transportation. They could also become a type of speedboat. We think that they could be popular one day.