The distance they jump/the speed at which they fall seems like it would be impossible to land without falling flat on your face. There is obviously some cool physics going on, but please.
In: Mathematics
There’s a lot of skill involved in making sure you don’t land without falling flat on your face.
Part of that skill involves holding your body in such a way that you maximize lift, which includes holding the skis a certain way. The skis themselves are different from normal downshill skis – considerably wider and longer than normal. This gives them more control and makes it so that they’re more gliding than falling.
Another skill is learning how to land correctly. When executed properly, the landing is spread out longer to minimize the change in velocity (from hitting the ground).
Finally, ski jumpers land on a slope, not on a flat. Again, this serves to make it so that they lose less velocity when hitting the ground. Instead of abruptly stopping (which results in a very large change in velocity over a short time, which in turn gives a high force), they can maintain both their horizontal and vertical velocity – essentially, they’re still “falling” down the slope. And being in contact with the ground, they can then shed their velocity in a more controlled and drawn-out fashion, which minimizes the force they have to deal with.
To use an analogy: Falling a from a building is like driving your car straight into a building and using the building to stop your car. It doesn’t tend to end well.
Coming down from a ski jump is like driving up a hill and allowing the hill to slow you down before you finally hit the brakes at a stoplight.
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