Parachute Investigation Lab Report

Parachute Investigation Lab Report

Research Question and Background Information:

Is size important for slowing done a parachute’s fall? Does it even matter? As the parachute is falling, the force of gravity is pulling the parachute down towards the Earth and this sometimes causes the fall to happen very fast. When going skydiving or when NASA tries to land a probe, designing a parachute is a vital step. Without the proper parachute, one could die or get seriosuly injured. The main use of the parachute is to slow something down because it causes air resistance, which is also known as drag force. The air ends up pushing the parachute and also creates that does the opposite to what gravity does, which then slows the parachute and skydiver

Construct the five different parachutes, using the different measurements of 18, 20, 22, 24, and 26, as the perimeters of each of the squares, all in cm. Refer

2. Once all parachutes have been constructed, cut 20 pieces of string, each 25 cm in length. Be sure to use the same brand and type of string for each and every parachute, as this will affect the data.

3. On all pieces of string, measure 1 cm and mark it on the string, do the same on the other end but this time mark 3 cm. This will be used to attach the string to the parachute and mass to the parachute as well.

4. Take four pieces of string and tape it to the four corners of the parachute, be sure to tape the side with 1 cm mark, and tape that 1 cm to the parachute.

5. Repeat this step for all parachutes.

6. Once the string is attached, take a paper clip and tie the 3 cm end of the string onto the paperclip. Make sure to only tie that 3 cm, as each and every one must be the same.

7. Lastly, hook the washer onto the paperclip. Just to be safe, move the washer till it’s on the inside of the paperclip, this will ensure that it will not fall off during trials. Refer to figure 1 for the set up of the entire

When a parachute has a larger surface area, it will cause more air molecules to be moved, thus, leading to it having more drag. The more the drag, the slower the parachute will fall to the Earth. The air which causes this, also pushes the parachute back up. This causes the creation of a force that does the opposite of what gravity does. As the parachute falls, these two forces are almost in perfect balance, the drag force that comes from the parachute is slightly less than the force of gravity, this lets the parachute fall safely do the ground. As parachutes are used for when people go sky-diving, this experiment has been conducted multiple times for skydivers. It has been found that this relates closey to Issac Newton’s Laws of Motion, especially his first. His first law clearly states that if forces on a object are in balance, that specific object’s speed and direction (of motion) will not change throughout. So, if the object is moving, it will continue to do so in a constant speed and straight line. Actually, skydivers go through a period of time where the forces are not balanced, so they are often accelerating. Eventually, the drag will be equal to the force of gravity, this means that the skydiver will no longer be accelerating, but moving at a constant speed, just as Newton stated. Refer to figure 5 for a diagram. This does support our data, as our data showed that the larger the parachute, the longer the drop time.