Parachute Investigation REPORT-1
Parachute Investigation REPORT-1
Parachute Investigation REPORT-1
Parachute Investigation
Aim
Provide a clear brief statement of the purpose of the experiment with reference to the dependent and
independent variables.
To change the size of the plasticine to see how it affects how fast it falls in the experiment.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Hypothesis
Write a prediction of what you think the result of your experiment will be.
We hypothesise that the less plasticine we use, the slower it will fall thus not taking as much
damage.______________________________________________________________________________
Equipment
List all the equipment and/or materials to be used in the experiment (use exact amounts).
Plastic bag
String
Plasticine
Year 8 Science Forces & Energy
Scientific diagram
Use this space to insert an image of a hand-drawn labelled design of your parachute. Indicate the variable that
is going to be changed.
Method
Provided a numbered, step-by-step description of how the experiment was carried out (including the
process of building the parachutes).
Include exact measurements and the instruments used to measure your results.
Make sure you have designed a reliable and fair experiment and controlled all variables except the one you
are changing.
Risk assessment:
Identify two risks and the management strategies that are needed to be taken to prevent injury during the
experiment.
Results
Record your results here. This be in the form or a table with a title, appropriate column headings, at least 3 trials
and a column for the average. (Feel free to conduct more than three trials!)
Graph
Graph your results below as a line graph on graph paper. Include a title, axes labels with units, linear scales
and a line of best fit. Insert an image of your graph below.
Year 8 Science Forces & Energy
Discussion
2. Identify the forces acting on the parachute as it falls and the direction in which these forces are
acting.
Gravity an air resistance act on the parachute because gravity pulls the parachute down but the
bag creates air resistance for the parachute to stay longer in the air
3. Describe how the size of the forces acting on a parachute change from when it is released to when
it lands on the ground.
Gravity has a larger size force acting on the parachute than air resistance, the longer it takes for
the parachute to hit the ground, the more force air resistance has when released.
4. Identify one issue you encountered during your experiment and suggest one way to improve this
issue if you were to repeat this investigation.
One issue my group uncounted was managing to attach the strings into the plasticine, from this
problem we put a hole in the plasticine and put some part of the string into the plasticine hole.
This could’ve been inaccurate because of the different lengths used. Next time we can mark lines
on the string to create a fair test/trial.
Conclusion
Write a brief statement that addresses your hypotheses and summarises your results with reference to the
dependent and independent variables.
Year 8 Science Forces & Energy
Our hypothesis was incorrect. We believed that the less plasticine we use, the slower it will fall which wasn’t the
case. What surprised us was our independent variable, size of plasticine, was 15g was faster than our 20g ball of
plasticine.