Question

When a parachutist jumps from an airplane, he eventually reaches a constant speed, called the terminal speed. Once he has reached terminal speed: a. his speed is equal to g. b. the force of air drag on him is equal to his weight. c. the force of air drag on him is equal to zero. d. his acceleration is equal to g. e. the force of air drag on him is equal to g.

Answer 1

Answer:

b) True.    the force of air drag on him is equal to his weight.

Explanation:

Let us propose the solution of the problem in order to analyze the given statements.

The problem must be solved with Newton's second law.

When he jumps off the plane

     fr - w = ma

Where the friction force has some form of type.

     fr = G v + H v²

Let's replace

     (G v + H v²) - mg = m dv / dt

We can see that the friction force increases as the speed increases

At the equilibrium point

      fr - w = 0

      fr = mg

      (G v + H v2) = mg

For low speeds the quadratic depended is not important, so we can reduce the equation to

     G v = mg

     v = mg / G

This is the terminal speed.

Now let's analyze the claims

a) False is g between the friction force constant

b) True.

c) False. It is equal to the weight

d) False. In the terminal speed the acceleration is zero

e) False. The friction force is equal to the weight