Terminal Velocity Activity: Egg Parachute

A parachute for an egg.

Terminal velocity is a fun topic. It will make your students realize how important Physics is in their lives. Without terminal velocity, raindrops would be very painful.

However, this topic can be overlooked! Even I, just showed a video for this topic when I taught in college. It was a video of people in parachutes.

When I taught in High School, I let my students perform an activity where they have to make a parachute. This parachute should be enough to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from the second or third floor of a building.

This is a very fun activity and your students will surely love it. I have some guidelines for this activity:

1. Make sure the students use around 1 x 1 m sheet of plastic or cloth.
2. The groups should be composed of 4 to 6 members.
3. The parachutes should be tested using another object to prevent a mess of broken eggs.

There you have it! Enjoy!

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