[Ho-ly F*CK] Man falls 15,000 Ft. and lives

Terminal velocity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
While wikipedia may not be the best source it still shows all the fundamentals.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justice For All

So the Air resistance is so much that it defies Gravity? Uh-uh. In order for you to stop accelerating at a "certain speed" the Air Resistance and Friction would have to have a greater force than the Gravity pulling you to Earth

You said that in order to stop accelerating you the air resistance would need to apply a greater force than gravity. This is incorrect. The force of the air resistance only needs to be equal to the force of gravity for you to have zero acceleration.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justice For All

When an object is in motion, it stays in motion until something stops it

This is true. However at terminal velocity the object does not stop moving. Its velocity is constant. It only stops accelerating.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justice For All

How is it so hard to grasp the concept that once you are in motion with nothing restricting you that has a greater force than Gravity, you will only go faster you won't slow down.

The faster you go the greater air resistance. This means the faster you go the greater the force opposing you. As the force opposing you is increasing your acceleration is going to slow down. Not your velocity.

When the force for of the air resistance reaches that of gravity you are in equilibrium. Your acceleration is zero. This also means that the force of air resistance will not be greater than the force of gravity unless you apply an external force so you can never free fall upwards or come to a complete halt midair.

So no this isn't crazy. It makes perfect sense to me. While I am surprised that they survived I am not going to be more surprised by someone falling from a greater height and surviving as they both would have reached terminal velocity.