Parachute EEI

Introduction-
This experiment was conducted in order to use a parachute to reduce the collision force by decreasing the acceleration of which the water balloon is traveling causing it not to burst. When the balloon was dropped without a parachute the force of gravity was pulling it towards the ground therefore causing it to accelerating at such a fast rate that when it hit the ground the amount of force it hit the ground with was so great that the balloon popped. However when the balloon was dropped with a parachute, after deploying, it would provide wind resistance and therefore cause the balloon to decelerate causing it to move at a lower velocity causing it to hit the ground with a much lower force therefore causing it to supposably not pop. When discussing physics and parachutes Newtons three laws of motion must be considered. Newton’s first law of motion states, every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. Newton’s second law of motion states, the relationship between an object's mass (m), its acceleration (a), and the applied force (F) is F = ma. Newton’s third and final law of motion states, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Before the experiment was conducted it was predicted that if a parachute that was round in shape was made the balloon would not pop as round shaped parachutes provide a lot of air resistance therefore causing the balloon to travel at a low velocity causing it to hit the ground with little force therefore the balloon would not pop. It was also predicted that if the parachute was made too close to the balloon the balloon would pop as there would not be enough air resistance to keep the balloon traveling at a slow enough velocity to keep it from popping.

Methodology-
The first thing that was done was the collection of the materials. (Materials List can be found in appendix 1.1). Then the risk assessment was completed. (Risk assessment can be found in appendix 1.2). Next the water balloon was filled and then weighed to find the mass which should have equalled 230 grams. Then the base of the parachute was made by cutting a hole in a piece of foam large enough to fit the balloon inside. Next the string was measured to then cut to be four pieces of 40 centimetres long. Then the plastic bag was cut in half in order to make it small enough to deploy quickly. Then the four strings were tied to the base and then the parachute. Then the balloon was put into the base and was then taped down in order to prevent it from falling out. (Diagram of parachute can be found in appendix 1.3). A controlled balloon was then dropped without a parachute and was timed with a stopwatch. The parachute with the balloon in it was then dropped from a height of 2 meters and was then timed. Then the force and acceleration was measured through calculations. After the experiment was conducted the parachute was modified in order to improve the results. (Diagram of modified parachute can be found in appendix 1.4). Finally the force and acceleration was measured again in order to complete the results table and the experiment.

Results-
Throughout the experiment many variables were measured. These variables include things such as height of the drop, time which was measured with a stopwatch, the mass which was measured with a scale, velocity which was found by dividing the distance by the time, acceleration which was measured by dividing the change in velocity by the change in time and force which was measured by multiplying the mass by the acceleration.
Results table
Trial:

Control
Trial 1
Trial 2
Height:

2m
2m
2m
Acceleration (m/s ^2):

9.434
1.87
3.125
Force (KN):

2.169
0.4031d
0.718
Mass (grams):

230
230
230
Time (seconds):

0.46
1.06
0.8

(Calculations of results can be found in appendix 1.5)
Trial Comparison-
The results showed many differences throughout each trial. Although there were differences between the trials there were a couple of things that were the same such as the fact that the mass and height were the same in every trial. One thing that was different between trial 1, the controlled and trial 2 is that trial 1 did not pop whereas trial 2 and the controlled di. Something else that can be observed is that the force in the controlled trial was far higher than in trial as it did not have a parachute to provide air resistance therefore the acceleration would have been extremely high causing the force to be high whereas with trial 1 and trial 2 the force was far lower than in the controlled because it had a parachute to provide air resistance and therefore decrease the acceleration and decreasing the force. Even though the mass in each trial was equal the acceleration was different as the two trials had parachutes to provide air resistance whereas the controlled trial didn’t therefore causing it’s acceleration to be high. The time of each trial was also different as the controlled trial did not have a parachute causing the force of gravity to pull it to the ground with no resistance causing a very fast time whereas the other two trials had parachutes to provide air resistance causing a slower time.

Graphs

Graphs

Discussion
This experiment showed that if a parachute was added to a water balloon it would have a lower collision force than a water balloon without a parachute. The controlled trial of this experiment was conducted and the water balloon was dropped without a parachute the force of gravity pulled it to the ground at such a high acceleration that it hit the ground with very high force which would supposably have caused it to pop. The other two trials were conducted by dropping a water balloon with a parachute attached to it in order to decrease the force when hitting the ground which was to supposably cause the balloon to not pop. The results of this experiment proved that if a parachute was attached to a water balloon it would decrease the force in which it hit the ground as when the controlled trial was dropped without a parachute it popped as expected and when the first trial was conducted and dropped with a parachute it did not pop as expected. In the hypothesis it was stated that that if a parachute that was round in shape was made the balloon would not pop as round shaped parachutes provide a lot of air resistance therefore causing the balloon to travel at a low velocity causing it to hit the ground with little force therefore the balloon would not pop. It was also predicted that if the parachute was made too close to the balloon the balloon would pop as there would not be enough air resistance to keep the balloon traveling at a slow enough velocity to keep it from popping. The results of the experiment proved the hypothesis to be somewhat accurate as the parachute for both trial one and two were round and one of them didn’t pop however one did pop therefore the first part of the hypothesis was partially correct. However the second part of the hypothesis was proved to be incorrect as the parachute for trial two had longer strings than in the first trial however the water balloon popped in trial 2 rather than in trial 1.
The results of this investigation are fairly accurate as they demonstrate Newton’s laws of motion. The results display Newton’s first law of motion which states every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it as when the water balloon was dropped the force of gravity pulled it towards the ground causing it to accelerate towards the ground and pop however when the a parachute is added it creates a force that causes the balloon to hit the ground at a lower speed and therefore a lower force causing it not to pop. Newton’s second law of motion was also used as the formula f=ma was used in order to find the force in which the water balloon hit the ground.
Over all this investigation was fairly successful in finding accurate results and using an efficient way to conduct the experiment. There are many strengths that the design of this investigation contains however there are also some weaknesses. Some of the strengths of this investigation included the fact that there was three trials conducted in order to find a range of results, graphs were produced in order to compare the results and the journal that was used contained a lot of helpful information. Although there were many strengths in the design of this experiment there are also many weaknesses such as human error during the conduction of the experiment, limited resources to produce parachute and finally the environmental effects that can cause the results to be less accurate than possible. In order to improve this investigation there could have been many changes made in the way this experiment was conducted in order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the results found. Some things that could have been changed to improve this investigation included using three people timing the balloon and then finding an average between each person’s result, conducting the experiment indoors in order to minimise environmental effects and by providing more resources to produce the parachute.

Conclusion
In conclusion this experiment was conducted in order to use a parachute to reduce the collision force by decreasing the acceleration of which the water balloon is traveling causing it not to burst. Overall this experiment found that if a water balloon is attached to a parachute while being dropped to the ground it will not pop if the parachute is made properly and can provide enough air resistance to decrease the acceleration and the force. The results of this experiment were fairly successful in showing that if a parachute is attached to a water balloon it will most likely not pop when dropped on the ground.
Reference list- http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/newton3laws.html -Newtons Three Laws of motion

Appendix 1.1
Materials List-
.String .Force plate .Egg Carton
.Plastic Bag .Stopwatch .Foam Material
.Rubber Band .Masking Tape
.Water Balloon .Journal

Appendix 1.2
Risk
Management Strategy
. Water could spill and wet everyone
. Sharp Objects
. Environmental effects

.Fall off chair
. Stand back and be careful
. Be cautious
. Conduct Experiment when it is not too windy and clear the ground of any sharp objects
.Use a Spotter

Appendix 1.3
Original Diagram-

Appendix 1.4
Modified Diagram-

Appendix 1.5
Calculations