Parachute Shapes

What you’ll need:

Garbage bags or a large sheet of plastic
Scissors
A hole puncher (or sharp pencil)
A roll of string
Paperclips
Popsicle sticks
Tape

Activity setup:

Square parachute set up:

Cut a square out of the plastic (approx. 30 cm x 30 cm)
Make 4 holes in your parachute (one in each corner)
Cut 4 pieces of string of equal length (30 cm each)
Pass a single piece of string through each hole in the parachute
Tie the string a simple knot (Tip: add tape for extra security)
Tie paper clips to the end of each string using a simple knot
Slide a popsicle stick through all the paperclips (thatʼs four paperclips around one popsicle stick)
Lay a piece of tape across the entire stick to secure the paperclips

Triangle parachute setup:

Cut an equilateral triangle out of the remaining plastic (30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm)
Follow the rest of the steps for the square parachute, except there are three strings instead of four.

Experiment!

Time to test your designs by dropping your parachute from a high elevation inside of your home. Get different people to drop the same parachute. Which shape do you think will fall faster? Why?

Whatʼs happening?

As the force of gravity pulls down, with a parachute there is a counteracting force call air resistance pushing it upwards. When an object falls without a parachute, the gravitational force pulling on the crate is much stronger, so the crate falls quickly. Parachutes increase the air resistance of a falling object to the point where the upward force of air resistance is almost equal to the force of gravity. This reduces an objectʼs falling speed with the goal of slowing the object enough that it will not be damaged when it impacts the ground.