Apologies in advance for this retarded skydiving question

[Evan]

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"So, if you CAN jump when it rains - like - REALLY driving rain - do you get wet, or do you 'beat' the rain down?"

Arguement was that if you fall at the same rate as this heavy rain, then you follow the rain below you and the rain above follows you as well. Another guy reckons you'd fall faster than the rain, so you'd get wet by the water below you, but not by the water above. I can't work it out. Anyone know the answer?

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Assuming anybody would be retarded enough to unnecessarily jump out of a plane during heavy rain (or a company would be insane enough to let you jump out of its plane during heavy rain), you would get absolutely soaking wet. Raindrops have a terminal velocity somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-20mph. A human body's terminal velocity is around 120-150mph... so you'll pretty much be falling ON all of the raindrops instead of them falling on you.

Plus, you'll hit a lot more of them since when you're on solid ground the difference in speed between you and the raindrops is 10-20mph. On the way down, the difference in speed is 110-120mph. You'll be hitting a lot more raindrops.

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I think your terminal velocity is only that low when skydiving because of the extra chute that gets deployed immediately and slows you down. An actual human's terminal velocity is notably higher, and some people do skydive without the extra chute. This is what I was told when I went skydiving.

[LeatherFace]

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You are heavier than the rain, so you fall faster. Basic physics man.

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yeah, because heavier things fall faster

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Thats what he just said...

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But with sarcasm, because it clearly is not true.

[/ QUOTE ]Hold out both hands. Put a bowling ball in one and a nerf ball in the other and see which falls faster kthx

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Is anyone else having trouble with this? I keep doing it over and over and it looks like they hit at the same time. Its hard to tell.

['Chair]

Terminal velocity
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For other uses, see Terminal velocity (disambiguation).

The terminal velocity of an object falling towards the earth, in non-vacuum, is the speed at which the gravitational force pulling it downwards is equal and opposite to the atmospheric drag (also called air resistance) pushing it upwards. At this speed, the object ceases to accelerate downwards and falls at constant speed. An object moving downwards at greater than terminal velocity (for example because it previously used power to descend, it fell from a thinner part of the atmosphere or it changed shape) will slow until it reaches terminal velocity.

For example, the terminal velocity of a skydiver in a normal free-fall position with a closed parachute is about 195 km/h (120 mph or 54 m/s). This velocity is the asymptotic limiting value of the acceleration process, since the effective forces on the body more and more closely balance each other as it is approached. In this example, a speed of 50% of terminal velocity is reached after only about 3 seconds, while it takes 8 seconds to reach 90%, 15 seconds to reach 99% and so on.

Higher speeds can be attained if the skydiver pulls in his limbs (see also freeflying). In this case, the terminal velocity increases to about 320 km/h (200 mph or 89 m/s), which is also the maximum speed of the Peregrine Falcon diving down on its prey.

The reason an object reaches a terminal velocity is that the drag force resisting motion is directly proportional to the square of its speed. At low speeds the drag is much less than the gravitational force and so the object accelerates. As it speeds up the drag increases, until eventually it equals the weight. Drag also depends on the cross sectional area. This is why things with a large surface area such as parachutes have a lower terminal velocity than small objects like cannon balls.

Mathematically, terminal velocity is described by the equation

[boomshakalaka]

do they drop you from above where clowds normally form? Or is it well below this? If you were dropped through a cloud you would obviously get very wet, that or you would bounce off it like a giant marshmellow.

[Warik]

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I think your terminal velocity is only that low when skydiving because of the extra chute that gets deployed immediately and slows you down. An actual human's terminal velocity is notably higher, and some people do skydive without the extra chute. This is what I was told when I went skydiving.

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It's because of your positioning when you fall. When jumping from a relatively low altitude that doesn't require an oxygen mask, you usually position your body in a certain way to maximize your freefall time, which puts your terminal velocity around 120-150mph. There are skydivers who have jumped from much higher altitudes in an attempt to fall really fast. We're talking 50k+ feet and falling torpedo style. I think the record is 275mph.

An average skydiver won't be doing that, so terminal velocity for them is 120-150. Both, however, would get soaking wet jumping during a rainstorm.

[CrazyEyez]

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the trick with this is not to land on the plane that's trying to take off from a moving runway

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I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] moving runway references.

[bustedchucks]

no jumping when there are clouds obstructing your view of the ground. patchy clouds, and you need to find a hole. if the clouds are high, you can fly below them and "hop and pop" - jump out and deploy the chute very soon and just enjoy the canopy ride. you should be pulling the cord at about 4k feet. that's higher than you really "need" to, but you give yourself time to cut away the main parachute and send out the backup if need be.

if it's raining out you're not going anywhere, certainly not tandem with a commercial outfit.

"blue skies" is a phrase thrown around as a departing gesture or a wish of good luck. sitting at the drop zone waiting for cloud cover to pass stinks. all dressed up and nowhere to go.