This lesson was made possible by: Kessler, James, Bennett, Andrea. The Best of Wonder Science. Vol.2 Copyright                                                            2001, American Chemical Society.
Information about this book can be found at the American Chemical Society's website.

The information (Physical Explanation) below about parachutes can be found at: Suzy's World

Physical Explanation:

• A parachute works to slow down someone or something from falling by creating “drag”.
• Drag is the push on something from air or water.
• Because air is much thinner than water it doesn’t have as much drag.
• The bigger something is – the larger it’s surface area the more drag it creates.
• That’s why a parachute works so well – it’s very light and it has a very big surface area. It catches lots of air in it as it falls so it creates lots of drag which slows it down as it falls.

Lesson Plan
The Atmosphere: The Air We Share: Parachutes! (Altered slightly)

Materials: 2 light wieght plastic shopping bags, scissors, string, tape, three pennies, and a stop watch.

Step 1. Work with your partner to cut out a square from one of your plastic bags. The square should be 25cm by 25 cm.

Step 2. Cut four pieces of string so that each piece goes from one corner of the square to about 5 cm past the center of the square. Tape each piece down at the corner.

Step 3. Bring the free end of the strings together and use a piece of  tape to attatch a penny to the four strings. Your piece of bag, strings, and penny should look like a little parachute.

Step 4. Hold the parachute at the top and drop it from high above your head.

Step 5. With the help of your partner, use the rest of your first bag to make another parachute. The parachute should be 35cm by 35cm.

Step 6. Complete the worksheet below.

Worksheet

 

 

1. Which parachute do you think will fall the slowest? The fastest?

 

 

 

 

 

2. Go into the hallway and test to see which one will fall the slowest/fastest. Use a stopwatch to time the fall of each parachute. Time each parachute three times and then find the average [Average = (Time 1 + Time 2 + Time 3) ÷3.

 

Parachute	Time 1	Time 2	Time 3	Average Time
Small Parachute
Large Parachute

 

 

 

3. Which parachute fell slower? Why?

 

 

 

 

4. Which parachute fell faster? Why?

 

 

 

5. If the penny was not taped to the bottom of the parachute, what do you think would

    happen?