Learn Russian: Документы разлетаются по комнате, когда дует ветер. - Documents scatter around the room when the wind blows.

The base verb is летать (to fly). The prefix раз- adds the meaning of moving apart or in multiple different directions. The reflexive suffix -ся makes the verb intransitive, meaning the documents are doing this to themselves rather than someone else scattering them. Together, they create the meaning of scattering through the air.

Since разлетаться is imperfective, how do I form its perfective counterpart?

For verbs of motion with the раз- + -ся pattern, the imperfective is built on the multidirectional root (летать becomes разлетаться), and the perfective is built on the unidirectional root (лететь becomes разлететься). To say the documents scattered a single time in the past, you would say документы разлетелись.

Why do we use по комнате (dative) instead of just в комнате (prepositional)?

The preposition по followed by the dative case (комнате) indicates movement around, along, or all over a space. Using в комнате would merely state the location of the event, but по комнате emphasizes the physical trajectory of the documents spreading all across the area of the room.

Is there a specific reason for the word order дует ветер instead of ветер дует?