1. Parachutes & Drag LO: Investigate how area can affect air resistance

2. How do parachutes work?

3. Your investigation Design and make a parachute to provide maximum AIR RESISTANCE for your sky-diver (a lump of plasticine) Time how long it takes to fall 2m Repeat the test 3 times Test three different sizes of parachute Calculate the average time and speed for each size parachute

4. Fill out your results table Size of parachute (eg: small or 20cm 3 ) Time taken to fall ___ cm Average Time (seconds) Speed (s = d/t) Use your average time for each parachute to work out the speed. Remember that: Speed = Distance ÷ Time To work out the average, add all the times for each activity together and divide by the number of times you repeated the activity (three)

5. Questions Does the change in size of the parachute make any difference. Why? How do the upwards and downwards forces on your parachute change as it descends? Would you do a parachute jump?!

6. Homework - Forces Diagrams Draw forces diagrams for a parachutist at three different stages of descent: – Start – Middle – End What two forces are acting on the parachutist? Make sure you label your forces and that the size of the arrows gives a clear indication of the size of the force

7. START The parachutist has just jumped out of the plane and is accelerating very fast towards the earth! MIDDLE The parachutist is now travelling at a constant speed END The parachutist has opened his parachute and has slowed down Air resistance Gravity