Ongoing science investigation project/ idea

Title:
The Effect of Parachutes Made Out of Different Materials on the Air Time of the
Parachutes
Research Question:
How will the different materials being used to make the parachutes effect the air
time of the parachute?
IV:
The different materials being used to make the parachutes (foil, paper, plastic, and
fabric)
DV:
the air time of the parachute (how long the parachute stays in the air)

Procedure:
1. First we cut the materials (foil, paper, plastic, and fabric into squares
with the dimension of 10 x 10.

2. Punch a hole at each end of the corners and put a piece of yarn that is
10 inches long through the hole.
3. Measure one pound and tie it at the end of the yarns. [picture 1] (note
to editors: we are going to add a picture of the parachute we made to show
how it should look like when it is done)
4. Make sure there are no one around when you are doing the test in case
of accidentally dropping the parachute on there head :)
5. Go on to an area with a high elevation and make sure there are low
wind.
6. Get the stopwatch ready to go.
7. Drop the parachute and record the amount of time that the parachute is
in the air on to a data chart [picture 2]. (Note to editors: we are going to
include a picture of the data chart to show them how you set it up)
8. Do 4 trials for each one of the materials and find the average for each
material. That is the number you are want to compare to the others to see
which material lasted the longest in the air.
Hypothesis:
If we use different materials to make parachutes (paper, foil, plastic, and fabric)
and attach a load to it, then the parachute made out of fabric will stay in the air the
longest out of the four materials, because the bonds of the plastic particles are
stronger, therefore when parachute is descending, the air pressures the parachute
which causes it to slow down.
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Materials:
Foil (10 by 10)
Fabric (10 by 10)
Plastic (10 by 10)
Paper (10 by 10)
Hole puncher/ scissors
Load (coins can be used)
Bag (to put the load in)
String (to tie load to parachute)
Stopwatch
Materials to record data on