Terminal Velocity in a Parachute

Terminal Velocity in a ParachuteThe aim of this try out was to t individu entirelyy how several federal agents like the continuance of the mountain chain, plenty of the intent hung to the plunk and aggrandisement of discharge affect the final stage swiftness in a spring. When we would throw the jump from a certain big top it allow accele lay out and allowing continue to amplification until a imbibe ability acts on it causing the accele dimensionn to decrease. There allow be a arcdegree of meter when the skip over accelerates at a aeonian further ( blow beat back equal to weight of the object). So in tell to find this incessant acceleration the research was divided into three unalike experiments. The three work outs I was investigating were the hatful, distance and height of drop of the jump-start where in for each wholeness experiment one unsettled was being changed.I hypothesized in the graduation experiment that a heavy object provide be to a greater extent(prenominal) disposed to arrive at remainder upper because it will travel solider and achieve a greater speed and this hypothesis was correct. With the second experiment when the length of the soak up was changed I had bit of problems because it was sullen to get the object hung to the pass over when the length was small as it constantly got loosened. In the third and utmost experiment I predicted that a smaller height will have a greater speed because of which it will experience a greater force and thusly ending hurrying will be reached and this assumption was correct. The measured heights though were non very accurate because I dropped the leap out in an open area under diverse various heights.Wind played a huge consumption in affecting some of the trials and I had to perform the experiment many beats in order for the airwavemanship ohmic resistance force be equal to the gravitational force.CONTENTSCOVER PAGE1ABSTRACT2ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CONTE NTS PAGE3BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE4HYPOTHESIS5EXPEIRMENTAL DESIGN6EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE7VARIABLES8DATA COLLECTION EXPERIMENT 19EXPERIMENT 210 11EXPERIMENT12 13FURTHER military rating14ERRORS15IMPROVEMENTS AND CONCLUSION16BIBLIOGRAPHY17INTRODUCTIONBackground KnowledgeI everlastingly have wondered how the military men used skydiving to intrude behind enemy lines and conduct various missions. After doing a bit of research I found out that Military skydivers are deployed from a large aircraft or at cartridge clips from a helicopter in order to do their various(prenominal) jobs which are mostly in the form of missions. They carry more gear thus the normal skydivers, deflection from the pass over they carry additional equipments like oxygen tank, weapons and other equipments which are needed for their missions so this becomes more challenging for these daredevils. So factors like ken of the skydiver, equipment they carry and the dig up area1or height by which they settle from will affect the speed at which the travel. It would be hence interesting to design an experiment to see how these factors affect the destination speeding of a parachute.Terminal Velocity occurs during free fall2when a falling body experiences cypher acceleration that is when at that place is no acceleration in the parachute. It varies directly with the ratio of drag to weight. Terminal stop number reaches when the force of soberness3acting on the object is equal to the air resistance or viscous force of air on the body. Air resistance4is a study factor contributing in a falling object to reach terminal stop number as it can easily contribute to the speed at which the body falls.HYPOTHESISA formula was derived by Sir Isaac Newton for one of the force considered in our experiment, air resistanceFg =Where, Fg = Force in NewtonsG = 6.67 - 10 -11M1 = Mass 1 in KilogramsM2 = Mass 2 in kilogramsr = Distance between m1 and m2 When the parachute will be falling down thither will be an ac celeration of 9.8 ms-2 independent of the factors in the parachute. Terminal velocity wont always be the same it will be variant for different variables.My hypothesis is that a heavier object will have a greater terminal velocity than a light one. For an object to experience terminal velocity, air resistance must balance weight. When the force of gravity is equal to the air resistance the object will travel at a constant velocity (newtons first law) so in the case of a heavy object the force of air resistance in the atmosphere will cause the body to decelerate5. A light object wont be able to equal resistance the way a heavy object will like the weight, surface area too has a great burden on a parachute stint zero acceleration. The surface area is the height at which the parachute is falling down. If the object falls from a smaller height the time for it to touch the ground will be less and henceforth a greater terminal velocity is likely to be seenThe third factor which I am p ickings in to consideration is the length of the delineate of the parachute. jibe to me the best string length will be the longest length since it allows the parachute to be more stable. As the parachute will be more stable the velocity will increase and hence in that respect will be less time taken for the parachute to reach terminal velocity.EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNThe main aim of the essay is to see how various factors affect the terminal velocity of a parachute. In general there are many factors affecting the terminal velocity of a parachute like the air pressure6, drop time, canopy area, size of the apex vent, number of length of thread and canopy shape. But according to me the most key factors that play a vital role in the speed at which the parachute descents7are the mass of the object in the parachute, surface area ( vizor of drop) and the length of the string. As discussed above these factors are the main ones when a parachute descents, be it a small object, military men or a parachutist. One factor may be prone to reach zero acceleration at a faster rate than the other so in my experiment I will be seeing how these factors affect the parachute reaching a terminal velocity.To see how various factors affect the parachute in reaching zero acceleration three different experiments will be performed. The amount of time taken for each of the parachute to hit the ground will be calculated and one variable in each of the experiment will be changed. The parachute will be made out of a gar smashere bag of 60 by 84 inch size. Then a big circle will be cut out of the bag of which four holes will be made and then the string will pass through each of the holes and will be stuck by glue. All the four strings will be made into one by attaching a small ribbon onto it and the length of each the strings will be about 80 cm. After the parachute is the three experiments will be performed and after it we will be able to determine when the parachute will travel at a constan t speed in order to reach terminal velocity. In each of the experiments there will be two controlled and one independent variable and will see how these variables affect the others.EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDUREFor the first experiment the height from which the parachute is being dropped will be unbroken constant and the length of the string in the parachute will remain the same. The factor that is being changed here is the weight of the object. Two different masses one of 50 and the other of 100 grams will be used and they will be hanged to the parachute one after the other in order to see which one is more prone to reach constant acceleration and they will be dropped many a times till I achieve accurate yields. Time will be calculated here to see the speed at which the parachute reaches the ground when the mass is 50 and 100 grams. The weights will be measured by move each of the masses on to a balance on by one.In the second experiment the length of the string will be kept as constant but the other factor that is kept constant here is the mass of the object. The mass of the object will be a constant 50 grams and using this amount of weight will make it easier for the parachute to reach zero acceleration. The height at which the parachute is being dropped will be changed in this experiment. I will start from a height of say 280 cm and will go up to 350 and see the time at which the parachute hits the ground in each of the case.In the third and final experiment the height of drop will remain the same (540cm) and again the weight of the object will be kept constant, the mass will be 50g. With the same parachute with the constant variables mentioned in these experiment strings of different length 80cm, 70cm, 60cm, 50cm, 40cm and 30cm will be attached. The parachute will be then dropped by 540cm in all the cases so that the parachute reaches terminal velocity. By this the variations in time will be known and hence we will be able to come to a conclusion. We will have to try our level best to avoid outside force like wind to affect the experiment.VARIABLES tasteNumberIndependent variable quantityDependent VariableControlled Variable1Mass of the objectTerminal Velocity and the time elapsed until terminal velocity is reached.Surface area and the length of the string. They are the other two factors taken into consideration for the object reaching terminal velocity.2Height of drop of the parachuteTerminal Velocity and the time elapsed until terminal velocity is reachedMass and the length of the string in the parachute will be the same in this experiment and they are the two factors taken into consideration.3 aloofness of the stringTerminal Velocity and the time elapsed until terminal velocity is reached.Mass and Surface area are kept constant in experience three. This time the Mass and Surface area wont be altered.DATA COLLECTION try out 1In the first experiment the independent variable is the mass of the object hung to the parachute. The controll ed variables are the height of drop and length of the stringHeight of drop of the parachute = 540 cmLength of the string is 80cm disapprove 1 (50g)TrialsTime(0.1s)16.5227.4636.3848.3657.9467.8176.6387.32 reject 2 (100g)TrialsTime(0.1s)14.3223.2133.9743.7354.1864.3573.3684.57Experiment 2In the second experiment the independent variable is the height of drop, it is being changed and the factor that is kept constant is the length of the string and the mass of the object used.Length of the string 80cmMass of the object 50gHeight of Drop (0.05cm)Time(0.1s)AverageTrial 1Trial 2Time(0.1s)2800.890.740.822900.981.171.013001.391.271.333101.341.561.453201.711.821.773302.032.112.073402.342.492.423502.722.772.75After plotting the datas with appropriate erroneous belief bars and the line of best fit I found out that as the height of drop increases the time for the parachute to fall down increases. When you drop the parachute from a height of above 325 m then the parachute will be more prone to reach terminal velocity. When the parachute was falling down the drag force increased with increase in terminal velocity. It reaches a maximum velocity when the drag force equals the driving force. From a height of 280 to 310 m the parachute fell at a very fast rate (0.5 1.0 s) because of which constant velocity wasnt reached. Also noticed in this graph was that there is constant acceleration at a height od 330 cm which shows us that terminal velocity has been reached.Experiment 3For the third and final experiment the factor that is being changed is the length of the string. This time the mass of the object and height of drop is kept as the controlled variables.Mass of the object 50gHeight of drop 540cmTrialsLength of the string (0.05cm)Time (0.1s)1807.212706.393605.854505.775404.326303.97After plotting the graph for the third experiment where the length of string in the parachute was changed I found out that when there was a decrease in the length of the string then the time f or the parachute to fall down also decreased. This means that a weeklong string will be more prone to terminal velocity. When the length of the string decreased then the air resistance increased due to the increase in length which resulted in the parachute to fall down at a constant velocity. For a string of length of more than 50 cm terminal velocity will be reached at a faster rate. In this experiment also constant acceleration is seen at higher lengths of around 65 to 80cmFURTHER EVALUATIONIn each of the experiments we can now successfully say that terminal velocity was there at some point or the other. The question posed how factors like the surface area, mass of the object and length of the string affects the parachute in reaching a terminal velocity and we can say that all of these factors have an effect in reaching zero acceleration. When the length of the string was greater than terminal velocity was seen very speedy and when you would increase the height of drop of the p arachute also terminal velocity will be successfully reached. The air resistance depends on the height of drop and the speed at which the parachute travels. But as the height of drop, length of the string and mass of the object was not big with greater values there was a lower terminal velocity seen.In the first experiment we noticed that speed changes as we change the mass of the object. So we can say that terminal velocity is affected when we change the weight. According to Newtons Second law, the force of gravity is proportional to mass under free fall.So, F = mg where g is the acceleration due to gravity directed downwardsWhen terminal velocity is reached mg = drag force of the objectIf we assume this drag force to be the same, when the mass of the object increases then terminal velocity also increases to correspond to the increase in force. In the experiment when the mass of the object hanged to the parachute was more the terminal velocity was reached at a faster rate than obje ct with a lighter mass because in this case the drag force of the object equaled mg more quickly. But one occasion noticed in this experiment was that the parachute traveled at a faster rate not only because of the weight but also due to the surface area. The object with mass 50 grams had a greater surface area due to which the terminal velocity resulted to be low. When the weight of 100g was measured the surface area was comparatively low due to which the terminal velocity was higher. The greater weight increases the terminal velocity by acting as an extra force against gravity and air resistance.In the case of different heights we noticed that when we increase the height of drop then naturally the speed would increase and hence terminal velocity would be reached. For the experiment I performed, the last trial when the parachute was dropped at a height of 350 m the recorded time was 2.75 seconds. At a time of approx. 1.80 seconds terminal velocity was reached because as mentioned above this was the time when the drag force was equal to mg. However as the height gets lower the terminal velocity would decrease. Under gravity an object falls at a rate of 9.8 m/s2 which tells us that per second that the parachute falls its velocity increases by 9.8 m/s2. When the parachute is falling form a higher distance(350m) it will have more time to speed up which will result in a higher terminal velocity.It was clear that when the best length string was that of 80cm. The larger the size of the length of the string was the greater was drag force and hence faster it equaled the other forces. When the string had a greater length the parachute was more spread out. The open parachute lets the air resistance to increase. If the length of the strings are short then less air will enter the parachute which would lower the parachutes drag force or resistanceERRORSIn each of the experiments there were difficulties faced and one of the main ones was the force of wind. For some of the readings taken the wind speed increased so much that it changed the direction of the parachute. Even though direction does not have any effect on a parachute reaching terminal velocity most of the times but at some cases this change of direction can increase or decrease the speed of the parachute. In one of the readings taken for the change in the length of the string the parachute at the beginning travelled at a decent treat but all of a sudden it changed directions and was falling down vertically. This case happened when the length of the string was short (30cm) also in one of the readings taken for the same experiment of length 40cm the parachute collapsed in no time. Another bar that was encountered in all of the experiments was that the region of drop of the parachutes (540cm) there was a lot of wind because of which the parachutes would get winded away at times resulting a significant error in some of the readings taken.There were a few human errors in the experiment for exa mple the height of drop was not constant for the experiments. For each of the readings we took a rough value after first measuring what 540cm was. This could result in the time sacking a few seconds up or down. These changes dint allows the calculations to be accurate for the average velocity.Another error I encountered was the mass of the object hung to the parachute. I assumed the mass of 100 grams to be a true(p) one for this experiment but instead it increases the acceleration of the parachute which dint allow the parachute to open well so to create and upward force and hence reach terminal velocity.When the parachutes length was 30 and 40 cm terminal velocity was not reached because the parachute reached the ground before so the air resistance was not there.IMPROVEMENTSWe could improve on the results by performing the experiment when there was very less wind as that would not then affect the height of drop (540cm). Another thing we could do is that of adding nets to the parac hute in order to see how much of air is blocked in the material which affects the velocity at which the parachute travels. This results in the experiment to be more precise as only the part when the parachute reaches terminal velocity will be measured. I could perform the experiment at various high lengths which would result in more readings where terminal velocity will be reached because when the length of the string was 30 and 40cm there was no constant acceleration sees as the parachute hit the ground as a fast rate.CONCLUSIONThe aim of the experiment was to see how various factors affect the terminal velocity of a parachute and my results were such that the heavier mass, larger length and greater height were more prone to reach terminal velocity. The graph had constant acceleration toward the higher region which proved our hypothesis. In each of the experiments when drag force equaled mg at a faster rate, there was constant acceleration seen quickly.But we should know that in v eracity terminal velocity is not very well defined because external factors such as air density, constant gravity and wind keep changing with time and will have an effect on the experiments we perform. For example in the experiment where the height of drop was changed the factors mentioned above will change with height due to which the terminal velocity also changes.More or less the results obtained were quite accurate and has a good scope for others to keep researching on this topic