When it comes to skydiving or falling from great heights, one of the most dramatic moments is when you reach terminal velocity—the point where gravity and air resistance balance out, and you stop accelerating. Some may wonder, If a person tucks their body during freefall, wouldn’t they reduce the impact and survive terminal velocity? While it might seem like a simple solution, the truth is far more complex. In this blog post, we’ll explore why tucking your body doesn’t make enough of a difference to survive terminal velocity and why falling from great heights is so dangerous.
What is Terminal Velocity?
Terminal velocity refers to the constant speed that an object reaches when the force of gravity pulling it downward is exactly counteracted by the air resistance pushing upward. For a human falling in a belly-down position, terminal velocity is around 120 mph (193 km/h). However, this speed can increase or decrease depending on factors like body position, mass, and surface area.
While terminal velocity signifies the point where a person stops accelerating and reaches a constant speed, it doesn’t mean the fall becomes any less dangerous. The speed at which you hit the ground is still extremely high and can cause fatal injuries.
What Happens When You Tuck Your Body?
Tucking your body during a fall typically means bringing your limbs close to your torso to reduce your surface area. This decreases air resistance, potentially increasing your fall speed. In certain situations, like during skydiving, tucking can help a diver gain speed or control their fall rate. However, when it comes to survival after reaching terminal velocity, the situation is quite different.
While tucking may reduce the time spent accelerating and could make you fall faster, it doesn’t significantly reduce the destructive forces involved when you hit the ground. At terminal velocity, the speed of your fall alone is more than enough to cause catastrophic damage to the body upon impact.
The High Impact Force
The main reason a human cannot survive terminal velocity, even if they tuck, is due to the force of impact with the ground. The force of hitting the ground is determined by several factors, including velocity, mass, and how the body absorbs the shock. When falling at terminal velocity, your body is traveling at a speed that makes it nearly impossible to survive the impact with the Earth’s surface.
For example, if you were to fall from a height of around 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), which is common for skydiving, the impact force would be so great that it could easily result in fatal injuries like broken bones, internal injuries, and blunt force trauma. Even if you reduce your surface area to fall slightly faster, you can’t change the fact that the body cannot withstand such extreme speeds upon hitting a solid surface.
Why Does Body Position Matter?
While tucking may not save your life, the position of your body does play a role in how fast you fall and how much force is exerted. In freefall, skydivers typically spread their limbs to increase surface area and slow their descent, which helps them control their speed and trajectory. Tucking in your limbs can increase your speed, but it also means that you fall in a more streamlined position, like a torpedo.
But again, even with the most optimal body position, the speed at terminal velocity is still too great to survive upon impact with the ground. The amount of time it would take to hit the ground doesn’t allow for enough deceleration, and the sheer amount of force generated makes the fall lethal.
What About Other Factors?
Other than body position, there are a few factors that could play a role in survival in extreme cases, although they’re very rare:
- Landing Surface: While the ground will likely be fatal at terminal velocity, falling into water, snow, or a forest of trees might offer a slight increase in survival chances. However, even water is like hitting concrete at terminal velocity, and the likelihood of survival is still very low.
- Height of Fall: The higher the fall, the more time you have to reach terminal velocity. If you fall from a lower height (say, 1,000 feet), you might not even reach terminal velocity before hitting the ground. But even shorter falls can result in serious injuries or death.
In summary, no matter how much a person tucks their body in a fall, the forces involved when reaching terminal velocity are simply too much for the human body to withstand. Tucking may slightly affect the speed or trajectory of the fall, but it doesn’t change the fatal consequences of hitting the ground at such high speeds.
Surviving terminal velocity requires more than just altering body position—it requires fundamentally altering the conditions of the fall itself, such as landing in a softer surface or deploying a parachute in the case of skydiving. While the human body can survive incredible feats, the laws of physics still apply, and surviving a fall from terminal velocity remains virtually impossible without proper safety measures.