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We headed to Yahoo! for a quick search on "skydiving," and received relevant results faster than a freefall. After scanning the search results, we touched down on the Yahoo! Skydiving category where we found several sites that helped us pull the ripcord on the question. A skydiver reaches terminal velocity when the force of air resistance pushing up against the skydiver is equal to the force of gravity pushing her downward. At this point, the skydiver is no longer accelerating, but falling at a constant speed. The terminal velocity for skydivers varies according to weight and physical position, but it's usually a very healthy 120 miles an hour. While a rock and
a feather fall at exactly the same speed in a vacuum, in our atmosphere this isn't the case. The feather encounters more air resistance, giving the rock more time to accelerate, and thus giving it a faster terminal velocity. How can a skydiver adjust her terminal velocity? By lowering wind resistance and arching into a dive. Which brings us to the incredibly important topic of parachutes. As the Physics of Skydiving tells us, "The increase in surface area reduces the terminal velocity to a much slower speed. One at which you won't go splat." Most skydivers fall in a spread eagle position to maximize their surface area, thus lowering their terminal velocity, thus giving them
more time to fall through the sky.
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