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Toy Parachute

이미지 제공: Renzo D'souza

 Materials

  • dinner napkin

  • string or yarn

  • scissors

  • small toy figures

  • markers to decorate dinner napkin

What is a parachute?

The word parachute is a compound word of the Greek word "para" and the French word "chute". The word "para" means "against" in Greek. And the French word "chute" means "fall". As this name shows you, a parachute slows down the falling speed. A typical parachute is dome-shaped. But most modern parachutes are rectangular. Early parachutes were made of silk. The most common fabric today is nylon. In this activity, you will make a parachute for toy and learn how a parachute slow the falling speed.

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 Procedures

  1. Before staring, let’s do a small experiment first. This is to check if a parachute really can slow down the falling speed. Stand on a chair and drop your toy. Measure time with a stopwatch. After making a parachute, you will repeat this with a parachute toy.

  2. Open a dinner napkin and decorate it.

  3. Cut 4 pieces of string in same length. (1 foot longs each)

  4. Flip the napkin over.

  5. Tie four corners of the napkin with the strings.

  6. Pull all 4 strings together and tie one big knot.

  7. Tie the string to your toy figure.

  8. Stand on a chair and drop your toy with a parachute. Measure time with a stopwatch.

  9. Check out if the parachute helps your toy fall slow.

Science Behind It

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Gravity is an invisible force that pulls objects toward each other. Earth's gravity is what keeps you on the ground and what makes things fall.

 

There is other force called air resistance force. Air resistance is a force that is caused by air and a type of friction between air and another material. When an object moves through the air, air particles makes it more difficult to move.

The force acts in the opposite direction to an object moving through the air. Simply, when a rocket blasts off, air resistance force pulls it back to the ground. When an object falls, air resistance force pushes it up.

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Think about parachuting. When you jump from an aircraft, Earth gravity pulls you down and the air resistance force pushes you up. When you open your parachute, the parachute increases the body's surface area. It creates more air resistance and drifts toward the ground slowly and safely.

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