What Affects How Parachutes Fall

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What Affects how Parachutes Fall? Aim The aim of this investigation is to find out how a variable affects the terminal velocity of a parachute, and how it alters the speed that the parachute falls. Theory When an object falls in air, the air resistance opposing its motion increases as its speed rises, thus reducing its acceleration. Eventually, the air resistance acting upwards equals the weight of the object acting downwards. The resultant force on the object is therefore zero, since the two opposing forces are balanced. This is called terminal velocity. [pic] http://tap.iop.org/mechanics/drag_forces/page_39518.html Let us assume that the “ball” image is the parachute. I will try to explain what happens as the parachute is released from a height. a) The parachute is released. The initial velocity is zero. b) The parachute starts to fall. The air resistance is small as the speed is small. The gravity remains the same. c) The parachute starts to speed up, thus increasing the air resistance. However, the gravity is still larger than the air resistance and the parachute continues to accelerate down. d) The parachute has accelerated to an optimum point where the air resistance and the gravity has reached terminal velocity, and the parachute reduces its rate of acceleration. The parachute descends at a constant speed, as it has reached terminal velocity. Variables There are a few possible variables that would affect terminal velocity of a parachute: • The shape of the object, would affect the air resistance, depending on how smooth or rough the surface of the object is. • The surface area of the parachute, which is also the size of the parachute, would affect the air resistance acting on the parachute, which will affect the speed that the parachute falls. • The length of the string between the parachute and the object

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