Have you tried the parachute? Have you designed one that can fall slowly to the ground before putting it to the test? Here, Pandai Lab 4 brings you to learn about air resistance with gravity concept! You can design and modify your parachute as your creativity and imagination.
A parachute is a device that creates air resistance or drag which pushes against gravity slowing down the fall of a person or object. On 27 October 2020, Tuesday, we will make a parachute using simple materials. Here the details:
Date: 27 October 2020
Title: Gravity Experiment
Materials: a plastic bag, markers, scissors, strings & a paper cup.
Procedures:
1. Cut the handles off of the plastic bag. Then cut the bag in half, making it into two large squares.
2. Design the plastic bag using markers as your creativity.
3. Poke 4 evenly spaced holes around the top of the cups (alternatively, you can tape the string to the cups)
4. Measure and cut four 12” pieces of string with the same length.
5. Tie the string to the four corners of the bag.
6. Tie (or tape) one string through each hole in the cup. Make sure you align the parachute above the cup as you tie the strings so the strings don’t get crossed as you attach them.
7. You’re ready to fly! Climb to the top of your stairs, or just stand on a chair, then let your parachute fall to the ground below.
What makes this possible and happened?
This experiment is all about gravity. Gravity is a force that pulls everything to the ground. Air resistance or drag is a force that keeps something from being pulled to the ground or slows the speed of something being pulled to the ground. So, a parachute enables a person or object to fall from an airplane to the ground at a safe speed. Parachutes float slowly to the ground due to the drag created by the large surface area. This increases the air resistance drastically and allows the parachute to slowly float to the ground. You’ll notice the more weight you add to the cup, the quicker the parachute falls. This is because the weight is increasing the terminal velocity of the cup, and counteracting the air resistance from the parachute. The larger the surface area the more air resistance and the slower the parachute will drop.
You can check the reference on this link for more details: https://www.engineeringemily.com/make-a-parachute-steam-activity-for-kids/
Check out this video Live Pandai Lab 4 for you: