This week in 5E we finished off our experiment on air resistance. After previously studying volcanoes, we were interested in discovering how to help areas which have been affected by eruptions. We wanted to discover which parachute would drop the fastest and consequently help the most people. Below are Joshua's findings:
We tested different types of parachutes and timed to see how quickly they dropped. My group altered the string length and our fastest time was 1.35 seconds. It was quite challenging to measure this time because it was such a quick drop. We knew to make it a fair test we had to keep all the other variables the same (height of drop, force and surface area, for example). Other teams chose different variables to alter. The problem I found challenging was the height of the drop: some people were taller than others, so the test wasn't fair. We solve this problem, we measured the height against the wall and ensured that all parachutes were dropped from this height. We found that in this experiment, string length affected the time taken for the parachute to drop: the longer the string, the slower the drop. However, we would like to repeat the experiment again under different conditions to measure the accuracy of these results.
I enjoyed reading your findings, Joshua. I am impressed with how you have carefully considered how to undertake and maintain a fair test.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting finding. Reading Joshua's work has shown me he understood the work and a real effort was made! Proud mum!
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