Purpose
We tested what type of parachute shape takes the
longest time to land, when attached to a 5 gram mass.
We tried to simulate real parachutes by using nylon
fabric for the parachutes. Nylon is a thermoplastic, silky
material.
The shape of a parachute affects its terminal
velocity and landing speed. Terminal velocity is the
constant maximum velocity reached by a body falling
through the atmosphere, under the attraction of gravity.
Landing speed can be calculated in the formula:
speed= distance/time. The aim of a parachute is to
reduce the landing speed of an object and thereby also
reducing the momentum by which an object hits the
earth. The greater the impact with the earth, the greater
the momentum and therefore the more damage caused
to a person’s body. Momentum is the product of a
body’s mass and its velocity and can be calculated using
this formula Momentum: mass x velocity.
Hypothesis
The round parachute will take longer to land than the
square and rectangular parachutes because in real life
people mostly use round parachutes and the shape will
slow the object down most. My independent variables
are square, rectangle, and round parachute shapes. The
dependent variables are we are going to test the time it
takes a parachute to land, the construction of the
parachute was also the same.
Controls
We dropped a 5g mass without a parachute and we
timed it. We did 5 trial runs with the 5g, and calculated
the average.
Constants
The height that the parachutes were dropped is 5.70
centimeters. The surface area of all the parachutes is
9.38 centimeters. The parachute fabric is called nylon.
The length of the parachute is 59 centimeters. The
weight of the parachute without a 5g mass is 6.68
grams.
Materials
1. A 5 gram weight for each parachute
2. 1 square meter of Nylon
3. 2 meters of thread
4. 1 measuring tape
5. A pair of scissors
6. A camera
7. A stopwatch
8. A roll of clear cello tape
9. Ruler
10. Hole punch
11. Sharpie
12. Protractor
Procedure
1. Use a protractor to make a circle with a radius of
17.3cm πr2 on the nylon fabric.
2. Cut out the round parachute.
3. Use the formula πr2 = π 17.32 = 94cm2 to
determine the surface area of the round
parachute.
4. Use the formula Area= bxh to determine the
length of the sides of the square parachute
9.402= lxl= 31cm2. Measure out this length on the
nylon fabric and cut the square parachute.
5. Use the formula BxH to determine the length of
the sides of the rectangular parachute. 940cm2=
59cm x w, so bxw w= 16cm
6. Tie the string to the weight and the round
parachute.
7. Using a measuring tape, measure the height
between Mrs. Stacy’s office to the ground.
8. Drop the round parachute from Mrs. Stacy’s
office ensuring that no extra force is used to
throw it.
9. Record the time it takes to fall from the person’s
hand to the ground.
10.
Repeat steps 6-9 with the square
parachute.
11.
Repeat steps 6-9 with the rectangular
parachute
12.
When we were done we calculated the
average for 20 trial runs each.
Results
Table1: Time it takes for the parachute to drop from a
height of 5.2 meters
Parachute
shapes
Average times
Round
parachute
2.646 seconds
Rectangular
parachute
3.462 seconds
Square
parachute
3.092 seconds
Control
1.178 seconds
Table 2: Final velocity calculated for each type of
parachute shape
Parachute
shapes
Average
velocities in
m/s
Round
parachute
1.96 m/s
Rectangular
parachute
1.50 m/s
Square
parachute
1.68 m/s
Control
4.41 m/s
Velocity was calculated for each, using the formula
v=d/t for example 5.2/2.642=1.96 m/s
Table 3: Final momentum calculated for each type of
parachute shape
Parachute
shapes
Average
momentum in
kgm/s
Round
parachute
0.0098
Rectangular
parachute
0.0075
Square
parachute
0.0084
Control
0.0205
Momentum was calculated for each using the formula:
momentum=m x v
For example 0.005 X 1.96 m/s = 0.0098 kgm/s
Analysis
Graph 1
Graph 2
Graph 3
Conclusion
Our Hypothesis was not correct because we said that
the round parachute was supposed to slow the object
down the most but the rectangular one had better
results. We could have improved this experiment by
using more parachute shapes. We could have changed
the weight that was tied to the parachute. We could
have extended our experiment by doing more trial runs
for each parachute and also by dropping the parachute
from a higher distance. The average time taken for the
rectangular parachute is 3.4625 sec. the round
parachute had the highest momentum with 0.0098 kg
m/s. The rectangular parachute had lowest momentum
with 0.0075kg m/s. These results show that the
rectangular parachute performed the best.
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