Paper parachute investigation - Investigating the relationships between the sizes of the cones, the time taken to fall to the ground and ultimately the speed at which each cone falls.

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Paper Parachute – 26/04/2007

Paper Parachute

Method

I will make several differently sized paper cones and time how long each cone takes to fall to the ground from the same height (2.72m). I can then investigate the relationships between the sizes of the cones, the time taken to fall to the ground and ultimately the speed at which each cone falls.

For this experiment, I will need:

  • Different sized circles,
  • Scissors,
  • Protractor,
  • Stopwatch,
  • Ruler,
  • Sellotape.

Before I start I must consider the most important factors in this experiment. The size of the cones; the change in size will create a change in air resistance and therefore affect the velocity. The amount of Sellotape we use will affect the weight of the cone and affect the results; therefore we must use proportionally the same amount of Sellotape for each parachute. The angle at which the cone is created will remain the same (60 degrees) throughout the experiment, as the angle will determine whether the cone is wide or narrow.

I will repeat the experiment 3 times and take an average to produce more accurate results. I will record the time the parachutes take to reach the floor using a stopwatch; the same person will record every parachute to ensure that reaction time is not a factor in this experiment. The preliminary experiment (described later) showed us that height would make a difference to our experiment. I will therefore use the same height in each case. A ruler attached to the bottom of a girder will ensure that each parachute is dropped from the same height. The readings I will be taking are of 7 different sized cones, (of diameters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 cm.); I will take 3 readings for each cone and then take an average. The 3 results from each experiment will be recorded into a table.

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Prediction

        

I expect to discover negative correlation between the size of the cones and the speed at which they fall. I would expect the differences in speed to be closely relative to the differences in the size of the cone but there may be some irregularities or offsets that would alter the shape of the graph.

Preliminary experiment

The purpose of the preliminary experiment was to help us determine whether or not the height at which the cone is dropped would affect the velocity at which the cones fell. We measured accurately the ...

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