Long before the aeroplane was invented, humankind had been striving to perfect parachutes. The rudimental version of parachutes dates back before 15th-century. These incredible devices allow an object from the sky to fall slowly toward the ground. But how does this work and does weight or size matter how the parachute will land in the ground or not?
How does a parachute work?
In the sport of skydiving, the parachute allows a skydiver to land on the ground safely. When he or she is falling, the force of gravity is pulling him and the parachute towards the earth. The gravity force makes them fall towards the earth very fast. The parachute is essentially a light-weight fabric and opens upon its release, the fabric goes against the gravity, thereby allowing the skydiver to reach the ground safely. As he or she falls slowly to the earth, the push and pull forces are almost in balance.
When the parachute opens, there is a second force that tends to work against gravity, air resistance. Air resistance is not a conservative force; the work it does when a parachute opens depends on the downward motion imposed by the object towards the earth. This explains why stone and a feather falls on the ground at different times. The stone reaches on the ground faster not because it weights less than a feather, but because feathers are caught by air when falling. But what about the size, does it matter?
Does the size of the Parachute matter?
How large a parachute surface area is impacted its air resistance or its drag force. If it has a large surface area, the drag force will be great. The drag force is what forces the parachute in an opposing direction of the force of gravity. So it slows the parachutes down as it falls, but this also means that it will take longer to reach the ground when compared to a smaller parachute. Arguably, the force of gravity is large on the large parachute; the increase in drag force is bigger than the increase in gravity.
In an aerodynamic science project, a student can test this hypothesis to determine whether the size is important in slowing down of the fall. This means that you will be making a series of parachute and test how they will fall at the same height. You can make the parachute in garbage bag materials by creating a flat sheet of plastic. For every parachute, tie the knot on four corners, and use the knots to anchor the sting. A same number of the washer can be tied on every parachute, to investigate the landing time on every parachute after several trials.
The expected result in this project is that the largest parachute would create the most drag; therefore, the size of the parachute would matter. Changing the weight may alter the result because of the air resistance, but the size is a critical aspect in a parachute. Therefore, a skydiver can land safely on the ground, when the parachute has a large surface area, and when it’s taking a longer time to reach the ground.