In Science this term, Year 5 have been exploring different forces.

Last week, we looked at air resistance. Air resistance is a type of friction between air and another material. For example, when an airplane flies through the air, air particles hit the airplane making it more difficult for it to move through the air.

Pupils worked in pairs and were set the following challenge:

The Super Skydiving Company are redesigning the parachute they use to allow people to perform skydives from airplanes. They want to make sure that the parachute they use allows their customers to fall from the airplane as slowly and safely as possible.

You are going to investigate a helpful effect of air resistance by finding the best design for their new parachute. The perfect parachute will be the one that makes a person fall the slowest. It will cause air resistance to push it up with the biggest force. 

Each pair was given some string and a plastic bag. Each pair explored the best design of the parachutes by changing the size of the bags, the length of the string or the object attached to the bottom.

 


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