You now have your Parachute.
Safety Procedure:
The safety procedure is one of the main aspects of doing any experiment!
In this and every experiment you do you should follow the rules to maintain a safe class.
The rules for this experiment are:
Make sure there is no-one around you when you drop the parachute.
Make sure the parachute does not hit anyone.
Make sure the chair or table you stand on while dropping the parachute is properly secure at all times.
Fair Testing:
For the experiment to be fair you must:
Drop the parachutes at the same time and at the same height.
Stop the stop clock at the precise time the parachute hits the floor.
Make sure the paperclips all are the same make and all weigh the same.
Call at the right time for your partner to stop the clock.
If you’re not sure compare results with others.
Method:
- Link 3 paperclips together and attach them to the knot of the parachute.
- Work with a partner. Stand on a chair or table (take care!) Hold the parachute at the top (the middle of the polythene sheet)
- Let the parachute drop at the same time; call out the partner. Your partner must start the stop clock when you call.
- When the parachute reaches the floor, stop the clock.
- Record the time for the fall in a table
- Now repeat the above now with 4 paperclips.
- Add more paperclips, recording your results each time.
- Do you think that changing the size of the parachute will change the time taken to fall? Test your ideas.
Results:
These are the results for the first parachute:
The average time is about 1.605 seconds.
Below are the results in the form of a line graph.
Above graph showing time taken.
These are the results for the larger parachute:
The average time for the parachute to hit the floor in seconds is about 2.318.
Below are the results in the form of a line graph.
Conclusion:
The results for both sets of parachutes were a bit scattered but the results proved my prediction, my prediction is that the larger parachute will stay in the air the longest the results may be a bit odd but basically my predictions came true when put against the average time taken for both parachutes to fall.
Evaluation:
I think that instead of doing both parachutes separately we should do them at the same time get another partner to record the time of one parachute as the other records his, it should be done by dropping arms length from each other so they don’t hit each other and disturb the results. I think my idea is better as we can compare results of both parachutes at the same time.
I must say that these results I obtained from someone else, but I fell I should also say that these results to me seem flawed as they are to scattered and to me I feel that either the parachutes weren’t made properly or that the people who record the results didn’t record them properly, but these results did prove my theory and I am happy about that.
This experiment to me should have been differently if not my way then an efficient and more reliable way.
