Investigation on how the Surface area of a Canopy Affects the Rate at Which the Parachute Falls.

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Carly McKenzie

        27TH January 2003

 

Investigation on how the Surface area of a Canopy Affects the Rate at Which the Parachute Falls

Aim

We are trying to discover factors which affect the rate at which a parachute falls. I am going to investigate what affect the surface area of the canopy has on the rate at which the terminal velocity is reached.

Variables

There are several factors which affect the rate of osmosis such as the potato (in this case) must not have any peel on it as the peel of a potato is impermeable and therefore would prevent the movement of the water. Here are the possible variables (listed below): -

  • The material of the canopy – some materials are more streamlined than others therefore the more streamlined the material the less air resistance, resulting in a faster speed and reaching its terminal velocity slower.

  • Mass/ weight of object – This affects the acceleration downwards of the object. The heavier the object the slower it will reach it terminal velocity and therefore it will reach the ground quicker. If the object is lighter then it will reach its terminal velocity quicker and it will reach the ground slower.

  • Surface area of canopy – This affects the amount of air resistance acting on the weight. The larger surface area you have the more air that gets trapped therefore the slower the weight will fall. The smaller the canopy the faster it will travel as hardly any air would have been trapped whilst falling.

  • Height at which dropped – Dependant on the objects weight a higher height can be more affective, this is because at a higher height the object it given more time to reach it terminal velocity.

  • Length of strings – This can affect the speed of the mass. If the mass is nearer to the canopy it would travel slower but if the strings were longer and the mass was further from the canopy there would be less air resistance and it would travel quicker.

I am going to investigate the surface area of the canopy because I think it has the greatest affect on the speed at which a parachute falls/ reaches its terminal velocity. This experiment will be accurate as it’s repeatable, I will repeat each experiment 5 times and then work out an average. There is a good range for me to work form and for me to construct a good graph. The measurements I need to make can be accurately measured; I will be using a stop clock that goes to a thousandth of second and use millimetres for any measurements I need to make.

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Prediction

I predict that as I increase the surface area of the canopy the time at which the weight takes to fall the distance of 4.5 metres (4500 millimetres) will steadily increase therefore the speed will decrease. Based on my preliminary results by using a suitable a range of canopy sizes I will be able to prove this statement.

Hypothesis

Terminal velocity is when an object has equal forces acting on it as it falls. When the parachute falls the two forces acting on it are air resistance (pushing upwards) and the weight of the ...

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