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Activity: Make Your Own Parachute

Materials:
plastic bag, scissors, hole puncher, yarn or twine, clear tape, small toy
Time:
1 hour
Skills:
Physical Science

Mini Language Lesson

Parachutes are used to slow the motion of an object through the atmosphere. The word “parachute” comes from the French expressions for “protect against” and “fall”. Parachutes protect pilots, soldiers and aviation enthusiasts from falling and getting hurt.

Mini History Lesson

In 1922, Leslie Irvin founded an organization for people whose lives were saved by parachutes when they jumped from disabled aircrafts. As the inventor of the first free-fall parachute, Irvin was proud to provide this protection. He called his organization “the Caterpillar Club,” after the silk threads used in original parachutes and the silken harnesses created by cocooning caterpillars. Still in existence today, The Caterpillar Club’s motto is: “Life depends on a silken thread”. American Lt. Harold Harris, whose life was saved by a parachute when he bailed out of a crippled plane in 1922, became the first member of the Caterpillar Club.

Mini Science Lesson

We've come a long way since those early silk parachutes, but the science that save lives hasn’t changed a bit. Since parachutes slow down a fall, they're designed to grab as much air as possible. But how? Physics tells us that the larger the surface area of an object when it’s in contact with the air, the harder it is for that object to travel through the air. So, the larger the parachute, the slower it falls.

Make Your Own Parachute!

In practice, we want our parachutes to open quickly and fall slowly. But just for kicks, let’s have some fun with parachutes. It’s easy to make your own parachute using recyclable materials around your house. Try to get yours to land on a target or see whose parachute lands first!

make your own parachute

Materials:

 

  • a lightweight plastic grocery bag

  • a scissors

  • a hole-puncher

  • 8 pieces of yarn or twine, cut to the same length

  • clear tape for reinforcement

  • any small toy to be your parachutist

 

Making the Parachute:

 

  1. Cut the grocery bag down to a large flat square.

  2. Trim off the corners of the square so you now have an octagon (8-sided shape).

  3. Use the hole-punch to punch small holes near each angle.
  4. Put clear tape over the holes as reinforcement, and then punch holes again.

  5. Tie one end of each piece of yarn to each hole.

  6. Pull the other ends of the 8 pieces of yarn together, and tie them in a knot.

  7. Push your small toy through the knot. Now you have a parachutist!

  8. Hold the parachute out in front of you, above your head with both hands and release it.

 

Try this outside, and take pictures of your parachuting experiments.