Helmet Padding Pressure and Impact Force
Hard
Does the air pressure inside a football helmet's padding change how much force reaches your head? In this project, you drop a 5 kg weight onto a helmet from a fixed height. An airbag and pressure gauge sit underneath to measure the impact.
You test four different padding pressures: 750, 800, 850, and 900 mmHg. Each drop is repeated five times at each pressure level. The pressure gauge records how much force passes through the padding on impact.
The results show whether higher padding pressure absorbs more force or transfers more of it through.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that a higher padding pressure in football helmets will lower the force of impact experienced by players during head-on collisions.
Method & Materials
You will arrange four bricks in a square, place a bowling ball in the middle, and place an airbag on top of the ball. You will then increase the pressure of the padding in the helmet to a certain level and place the helmet over the airbag. An assistant will hold a string with a weight attached to it and drop it onto the helmet. You will measure the pressure inside the airbag and record the results.
You will need a 2 meter long string, a football helmet, a 5kg circular weight, a bowling ball, an air pump, two pressure gauges, an air bag, four bricks, and a chair.
Results
The results showed that increasing the pressure of the padding in the football helmet led to an increase in pressure inside the airbag during collision with the weight. This means that a helmet with more pressure in the padding will lead to players suffering a more severe head injury in a collision.
Why do this project?
This science project is interesting because it shows how the pressure of the padding in a football helmet affects the force of impact experienced by players during head-on collisions.
Also Consider
Consider repeating the experiment using a wider range of air pressures for the helmet padding, or using heavier weights to simulate different collisions.
Full project details
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