The Physical Science of Skydiving
Vanessa Laine Gabriel
Dr. Burkeen
Westwood College

The Physical Science of Skydiving
Introduction
Skydiving which is also known as parachuting, is the action and adventurous sport in which a volunteer exit takes place from an aircraft for returning back to earth with gravity aid with the help of parachute for slowing down throughout the last of the safe descent of earth. This action may or may not comprise of a specific amount of free fall, but a moment in which the parachute has not been set out and the body accelerates gradually to terminal velocity. In this paper, a discussion will be conducted on the physical science of the skydiving.
Skydiving is performed as a competitive sport and a recreational activity, as well as it fulfill the deployment of the Airborne forces’ military personnel and rarely forest firefighters. When a parachute opens as, that will be completely inflated by 2,600 feet or 800 meters, (BBC News, 2009) and then the skydiver can control the speed and direction with toggles on the steering lines’ ends that are linked to the parachute’s trailing edges, and can intend for a safe landing and eventually arrive to a moderately tender stop. All the contemporary sport parachutes have ‘ram-air’ wings that are self-inflating and assist in controlling the direction and speed as per the linked paragliders. Purists in every sport would signify that paragliders have highly superior range and lift, but that parachutes are specially designed for absorbing the stresses of the consumption at terminal velocity. Through self-managing the body shape in free-fall, a skydiver can be able of generating turns, forwarding motion, back warding motion, and even though lifting (Westman, Rosen, Berggren, & Bjornstig, 2008).
The resistance in the air increases as the speed of the person increases, so when a person initially starts dropping and is moving gradually, the force of gravity is more powerful as compare to the resistance in air and the person speeds up, accelerating towards the earth (Free Fall Research, 2001). Thus, the faster a person goes, the powerful the resistance of air is and so finally the person is moving very fast that the resistance of air is equivalent to the force of gravity and the person does not accelerate any further. The person gets in touch with the terminal velocity for maintaining his or her existing position of body (Barlow, Niemirska, Gandhi & Leblanc, 1983).
However, the question that raises here is that why does the position of the body come into it? (Joseph, 2004). As, the resistance of the air also relies on the shape of any object and as a consequence by tucking in the legs and arms, the person can attain a relatively speedy terminal velocity as compare to the legs and arms of a person that are spread out. Although, the skydivers do not need to splay their legs and arms for slowing down if they were frightened of higher speeds and even they must not choose this sport then. Such persons, who go for skydiving, are trying for attaining a body position that is dynamically stable (Matthew & Foster, 1992).
The dynamic stability permits an arrow flying in nose direction first. If the arrow begins flipping sideways, then the air resistance that is in opposition to the fletching is better in comparison to the resistance at the nose direction, and eventually the arrow automatically goes in backward direction to its initial starting (Barlow, Niemirska, Gandhi & Leblanc, 1983). Similarly, the skydivers do not want to be out of control and to be dropping down end over end, so they trail their feet and arms behind them for acting like as they have feathers on the arrow (Mohazzabi & Shea, 1996).
There are various things that go beside the act of skydiving or parachuting. The things that a person undoubtedly tries to ask are, ‘How can he or she land safely through a parachute when he or she will be in higher speeds?’ or, ‘How can they do the things that are done by professional skydivers?’ (Joseph, 2004). There is just a straightforward answer to all such questions and that is, Air resistance. When an object or body is moving at higher speeds similar to that, then air resistance becomes a source of slowing down the speed of their velocity by maintaining their specific body positions. If they were in a specific position of diving such as ‘V’ position then there is relatively lower air resistance due to the lesser surfacing area that faces the direction in which the movement was taking place (BBC News, 2009). If the person spread his or her arms and feet out, then it causes a much larger surface area that eventually causes more air collision with the person’s stomach and slows more him or her down.
Thus, for parachute, it requires covering an extended much surface area for causing the adequate amount of air resistance that could slower the body or mass dramatically down, that is the reason of occurring gigantic snap ups when the person releases his or her parachute, and the massive quantity of additional air resistance at that moment becomes a reason for such a thespian slowing down. Nevertheless, the round parachutes require a minute hole at the tilt so that I could prevent any sort of flipping around (Mohazzabi & Shea, 1996). Air does not feel like to be resisted, so it strives its best for causing the path that is the smoothest possible to it, even though if it requires flipping that parachute. So, the hole that is on the tip of the parachute becomes a cause of a minimum possibility of that, but the air that comes up from that hole is highly colossal. Therefore, the most convenient solution is a parachute that is of square shaped, as it provides the air resistance that is minimally required, without the surplus area it covers up because of its circular shape. Furthermore, it permits the skydivers steering their way to an excellent landing (Matthew & Foster, 1992).
Conclusion
There is definitely some strong physics is involved in the action of skydiving, but one must have to realize it with its basics that are involved in it. Once a person leaves the airplane then there are two forces in actual fact that act on that person; the force of gravity pulls the person straightly down towards the earth, and there is some definite friction that occurs in the air. Mostly, the friction with air adjoins pushing in the reverse or indirect direction from the moving direction, so on the whole, it pushes the person up as well his or her all attached equipments.