Stupid Groom

A groom taking a picture of his bride on their honeymoon falls 4000' off a cliff. Amazingly he hits the top of a giant tree, survives and is now stable.

Not unheard of. Photographers often walk backwards while looking thru the view finder to frame the shot impressively.
If he was really a good photographer he would have been snapping shots on the way down.

How far did he fall before he reached terminal velocity?

Saw the thread title and thought it was another argument about pleonasms and redundancies =p

Quote: Ayecarumba

How far did he fall before he reached terminal velocity?

As you probably know terminal velocity is a theoretical limit that you reach when the force of gravity balances out the wind resistance. It is usually cited at 120 mph for a skydiver in the standard position with arms stretched out and legs bent at the knee. But pulling your arms in will increase it to roughly 200 mph. Records in the atmosphere are 330 mph, and 821 mph for jumps from the stratosphere (set by a 57 year old computer scientist from Google).

As a photographer who fell off a cliff it is difficult to say what he was doing on the way down. But I imagine he was in the air more than 20 seconds and probably hit that tree at well over 120 mph.

Quote: Pacomartin

As a photographer who fell off a cliff it is difficult to say what he was doing on the way down. But I imagine he was in the air more than 20 seconds and probably hit that tree at well over 120 mph.

32.5 feet per second squared I believe. The groom was not at all hurt by the fall; only by the landing.

Quote: Fleastiff

32.5 feet per second squared I believe. The groom was not at all hurt by the fall; only by the landing.

It is 32.174 ft/s2. But that is the gravitational constant and ignores air resistance which is what creates terminal velocity.

Without air resistance your speed would increase by speed=32.174 * t where t is time in seconds. You would just keep going faster and faster before you hit the ground. After six seconds your speed would be 32.174 *6 = 193 ft/second.

But for parachuters when they assume the position, within about 8 seconds they are almost completely balanced between air resistance and the force of gravity. Terminal velocity expressed in feet per second is roughly 180 ft/second (=122.8 mph).

If you jump out of an airplane after a few seconds when you stop accelerating you feel like you are floating (no acceleration means no force). But you are still falling at 180 feet per second. The sensation is very addictive and is part of the thrill of the jump.

Accelerated Free Fall as a method of training for sky diving can mean a free fall as short as 4000' but 6000'-7000' is more normal. Typically you exit the plane from 13000' (not high enough to make you particularly dizzy) and pull the main canopy at about 6000'.