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Physics of skydiving

dspaker

Entry posted by dspaker

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Skydiving is something that I've always wanted to do but apparently you have to be 18 years old to do it so I will have to wait until the summer. However, I think it would be fun to talk about the physics of skydiving so that I can fully understand it when I eventually do it. Some of the physics involved in skydiving are free fall, kinematics, drag and the force of gravity and air resistance. Skydiving is a free fall from a plane so in order to find final velocity, the height or distance of the jump or the time taken to complete the jump, one can use the kinematic equations. It is important to remember that gravity is equal to 9.81 m/s^2 and the initial velocity is 0 m/s. The forces acting on the jumper are the force of gravity and air resistance. The force of gravity is equal to the jumpers mass times the acceleration due to gravity. Air resistance is the force that is pushing up on and working against the jumper. Drag is involved in skydiving because the jumper uses a parachute to slow his fall and it creates an upward force because the air resistance works against it. As you can see, there are plenty of physics that have to do with skydiving.

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