The Physics of Skydiving (Science Out Loud S2 Ep1)

When you fall thousands of feet from the sky, it seems like something strange is happening with the laws of physics. Turns out, everything relies on a simple force - DRAG!
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made with love at MIT
Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA

Hosted and written by: Andrew Horning, Banks Hunter, Swati Varshney
Additional scripting: Elizabeth Choe, George Zaidan

Executive producer: Elizabeth Choe
Director: George Zaidan
Production assistants: Conor Olmstead, Ryan Pelletier

Skydiving footage: Andrew Horning
Special thanks: Jumptown

[Gixerpilot]

In the end it’s just falling with style

[Bella-qwdw]

2021 and it's still a great educational video. well done

[okiepitat-town]

Wow a group of MIT skydivers. Now that’s an exclusive club.

[jimsmith]

Massachusetts Institute of wooahh duuude!!

[jaywilliams]

Great video. Tells it like it is. Thanks MIT.

[MrReasonabubble]

I liked this, and for the most part I thought you did a really good job of explaining the physics involved.

It was only at the end, where you implied that parachutes work simply because of the drag generated by the large surface area, that you lost it a bit. That might be largely true of old-style round canopies, but it's really the aerofoil shape of a square canopy that arrests your descent - because it generates lift as it flies forward, like a wing.

[anabozin]

i got here for school but this video was so much fun and now i wanna sky dive lol

[aeroprince]

Awesome stuff to show my whuffo friends :D

[flyingAMT]

@2:23. Correct my wrong thinking, but I thought Newt's 2nd Law showed that objects all fall at the same speed, regardless of weight...

[tuttt]

I *wish* that I had had the money to skydive when I was at MIT. Those were the brokest years of my life LMAO. But now I can afford all the gear and jumps I want. Woo hoo!

[nimssayson]

Hello! Can I use some footage here for my new channel? Thanks

[drfazailzia]

Spacex Starahip Bellyflop brought me here 😂

[ramka]

Drag or Upthrust or Buoyancy or Air Resistance depends on the area of contact and the shape of the body. This is the key for skydiving.

[jamesblakeman]

General relativity would have it that the skydiver is in an inertial frame and that the earth is accelerating towards them and there's no force of gravity pulling them down.
Thus, it's the air being pushed upwards by the planet accelerating towards the skydiver which causes the drag effect in relation to the skydivers area!

[julianfernandez]

Very well done video thank you ! but to explain the physics properly you need to explain the Drag force at t=0 / which is in the direction of the movement - this is very different that free falling from a Hot balloon. That's why the sensation is totally different - without considering Fd0 in the direction of the plane you are not really analyzing the scenario described in the video.

[iqbalthootha]

Thank you! this helped me so much my science teacher just looked at me and said "How do you know all this""

[highonboard]

02:34 look he's not in the freefall. These dudes've just jumped of a cliff in the middle of the air.

[Zxxyn]

i have to watch this for homework


lol

[buttfish]

The only physics is that gravity sucks and you cannot resist the inevitable end.

[ericah]

Do you feel weightless?
That was a delight to watch! Thank you MIT skydiving club 👍😀