We looked at how the size of a parachute affects the speed it falls at.
We discussed that all variables had to be kept the same except one. This would ensure the experiment was fair.
The following were factors in the experiment –
- The material of the parachute
- The size of the parachute
- The length of the string holding the parachute together
- The weight of the blu-tac holding the parachute together
- The height the parachute was dropped from
The variable that we changed was the size of the parachute. In groups, we made parachutes of different sizes (20cm², 40cm² and 60cm²). We measured using a ruler on black bin bags and cut them out. Then we attached the same length of string to all of them and the same weight of blu-tac.
Next we made predictions. Which parachute would have the most/least air resistance?
After that we went to the atrium and tested our parachutes. We had a lot of fun doing this!
We timed the drop of each parachute three times with a stopwatch and then worked out the average.
We concluded that the bigger the surface area, the more air resistance and the longer it would take for the parachute to fall to the ground.
