Let's Make a Parachute!

★We are going to make a small parachute and watch what happens when you drop it.




★Time: takes around 10-15minutes

★Cost: $0 (if you have a piece of plastic bag and pieces of string)

★Materials:

1. A plastic bag

2. Scissors

3. String

4. A small piece that you can weigh

★Area of Topic: Physics

★Learning Objectives:

  Students can learn about air resistance.

★ Procedure

1. Cut out a large square from your plastic bag or material

2. Trim the edges so it looks like an octagon (an eight sided shape)

3. Cut a small whole near the edge of each side.

4. Attach 8pieces of string of the same length to each of the holes.

5. Tie the pieces of string to the object you are using as a weight.

6. Use a chair or find a high spot to drop your parachute and test how well it worked, remember that you want it to drop as slow as possible. :).

7. Compare the speeds of droppinf of plain thing and the thing with parachute.

★ Tips for making the experiment work best with kids:

1. Make sure that the piece of plastic bag is not torn.

2. Do not let the kids use the scissors in case of an accident

★Explanation:
The item with parachute will fall slower than the item dropped only. It is because of air resistance. As the surface gets bigger, the air resistance it gets get bigger. Since you expanded the surface area of the item with the parachute, the parachute will drop slower than the plain item.

★ Online resources for this experiment

http://pbskids.org/rogers/R_house/object3.htm
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html