  This paper investigates the motion of falling leaves through modeling using
papers and the corresponding data collected from more than four thousands
experiments. Two series of experiments were designed in order to study the
relationship between different parameters which can affect different paths of
motion in leaves. In the first series of experiments, the shapes of the
potential paths that falling papers can take were investigated as a whole. A
new classification scheme was derived from these experiments, categorizing the
motion of falling sheets of paper based on the deviation from the original
point of release and the shape of the path they take on their descending
journey. We believe this new classification scheme can be very useful with
potential applications in various fields such as biology, meteorology, etc.; it
can also build a foundation for further experiments. The second set of
experiments was focused on the dynamics and shape of the motion of the falling
paper itself. It was observed from these experiments that there should be two
critical values for Froude number in the falling paper motion in regards to the
rotational motion. We also found that the most stable and dominant rotational
motions are those observed around the length axis as well as the ones along the
diagonal axis.
