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Q:
Can you explain why does a skydiver not remain still if air resistance balances her weight so there is no force acting on her?
A:
When a skydiver reaches terminal velocity - the point when drag and weight balance out so the total force acting on them is nul - they are no longer accelerating, but they still have velocity. It's Newton's 1st law of motion: a body in motion will remain in motion until another force acts on it. So the skydiver will keep falling at a constant speed, even though the sum of the forces is zero.
Posted on November 6, 2015 at 3:18 am
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