I am teaching Forces to Year 6.
We have taught them that mass is not the same as weight, and they have weighed objects in air and water to see that the weight changes while the mass stays the same.
We have also demonstrated that a medicine ball and a basket ball hit the floor at the same time when dropped from the fire escape. I told the children that this proves that objects that weigh more do not fall faster.
Today, we experimented with parachutes. Would the size of the parachute affect the speed at which it fell? 1 group said that they would like to change the size of the weight at the bottom of the parachute. They made 3 parachutes the same size (40x40cm) out of recycling bags, and tied unifix blocks to the strings. The parachute with 32 unifix blocks dropped MUCH faster than the parachute with 16 blocks, which dropped faster than the one with 4 blocks.
Why??
Any explanations appreciated, as they are writing conclusions tomorrow!
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KingscoteStaff · 07/03/2013 22:50
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