What forces act on a skydiver as they are diving?

Answer 1

when a skydiver jumps out of a plane, the dominant force is gravity, pulling him/her towards the ground, although some air resistance is also acting on him/her, allowing him/her to fall at a steady speed (not dropping like a stone), so the forces acting on the skydiver are almost balanced. of course, all that changes when the parachute opens. then the air resistance greatly increases, drastically slowing the descent down to earth.

Answer 2

The forces involved in the freefall part of a skydive are Gravity and air resistance (drag). As the parachute is deployed, drag opens the canopy and the skydiver's weight provides tension on the lines. When the canopy has opened, the skydiver's weight is supported lift provided by the canopy. The canopy also generates thrust and drag, like an aeroplane's wing.

Answer 3

There are many:

• The freefall body position of the skydiver. If they are belly to earth, they will fall at 120mph. If in a headdown body position, its around 160mph.
• The type of jumpsuit a skydiver wears. Some are baggier and therefore have more drag which slows them down slightly. Some wear tight slick materials which speed them up. Further still, some wear wingsuits which deflect the air allowing them to move forward at great speeds and drop their downward speeds to around 40mph.
• Gravity is the main force acting on a skydiver. It is a constant. When a skydiver jumps, they rapidly accelerate over 10 seconds to their terminal velocity (120mph). This is where their mass matches the resistence of the air around them.
• Sometimes this can vary very slightly depending on exit altitude, humidity and air pressure.
• When the skydiver opens their parachute, they typically experience a slow down to around 20mph over 3 or 4 seconds, which exerts a g-force of around 2. Some parachutes are designed to open faster and slower than this.
• Lastly, when the skydiver comes in to land, they execute a flare which pulls the back of their parachute wing downwards. The causes forward and downward speed to decrease and allows for a gently touch down on the dropzone. With no more weight on the suspension lines, the wing collapses next to the skydiver.

Answer 4

The obvious force is gravity. This is the effect of space-time being warped by the mass of the earth, but it is more simply what pulls us towards the ground. Then there is the force of air resistance or drag which increases with downward speed to a point where it balances the gravitational pull. There is also another force, centrifugal force which tends to act at right angles away from a spinning body. If you intentionally spin in freefall, you can feel a tingling in your fingers and toes as the blood rushes outwards. This is the effect of centrifugal force. By changing your body position which involves the bio-mechanical forces in you muscles, hey a force we haven't yet considered, `we can change the balance of the other forces to the point where we have control over our skydive, approaching another jumper and linking up. There are chemical forces in our brain which are involved in the thinking process.

It would seem that there are forces involved that we might not consider at face value.

Answer 5

Gravity pulling the skydiver to the ground as well as wind resistance pushing up on the skydiver.