If the terminal velocity of a human is c120mph, how did Alan Eustace fall at a reported 822mph?

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I was just scrolling through another sub and the Felix Baumgartner jump came up, along with someone mentioning that the record was broken by Alan Eustace in 2014.

In the Wiki for this, it mentions he was falling at 822mph, however I thought a human’s terminal velocity was 120mph (more if say, a skydiver was diving head first)… So how does this work? Is it as a result of the reduced air resistance and force of gravity increased therefore increasing the terminal velocity?

Sorry, by no means a physicist!

In: Physics

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Reduced air resistance due to there being little air where they started their jumps. Once they hit the bulk of the atmosphere they would have slowed down, but for a while there they were just accelerating without bounds.

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