Thursday, May 16, 2013

Easy repurposed parachute toys





My son is fascinated by rockets right now.  It is easy to see where he gets it.  My husband came up with a brilliant design for a parachute toy tonight.   As our neighbor said, "It's so simple, why haven't I thought of that before?"


Materials  needed for your parachute toy

  plastic bottle with  lid and about a half inch of water in the bottom
  string
  plastic grocery bag


How to make your own parachute toy

Use the string to tie both handles of the grocery bag to the top of the bottle.  Sling the whole thing into the air as high as you can. In the interest of full disclosure, the above picture was taken close to the house, so while it did go above the house, it did not go as high as the photo indicates.



The kids were too busy throwing their parachutes into the air and giggling to ask why the toy worked.  However, it was still a wonderful opportunity for them to observe some of the forces basic to flight.  The force of gravity pulls the bottle back to earth.  The force of the air on the bag, better known as drag, pulls upward.  One of the cool things about this toy, was that there was a pronounced change motion when they parachute deployed.  Discussion can wait for another day.










5 comments:

  1. This is awesome. When I read the title, I thought, my kids would love that but I bet I don't have all the supplies. What do you know- I do! Thanks for the idea.

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  2. Oh good! I hope yours enjoy them as much as mine did.

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  3. I love simple homemade learning toys like this!

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  4. That's fabulous! We will definitely have to try this. We've got one obsessed by rockets and parachutes, too.

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I can't wait to hear what you have to say! Thanks for sharing.