Posted: 4/10/2008 8:56:10 AM EDT
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Let's say you were running on the ground with a parachute attached to your back. Your running velocity is exactly the same as the tail wind velocity. Would your parachute still open up? If not, what would happen? This came up at a bar. I have no idea where it came from but needless to say it was a heated debate. |
With ZERO airspeed, the parachute would drag behind the runner, getting dirty but doing nothing. |
... then the chute will open due to the tailwind and drag your stupid ass along the ground while others point and laugh at you. |
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The parachute will become enraged at the sheer indignity of this. Here it was, designed by the greatest minds of western science, created to save the lives of heroic men in combat... and some idiot wants to go running around on the ground like a retard with it strapped on his back. The parachute will not bear this insult. It will unfold itself in all of its glory, strangle the fool and then mummify him within its silky shroud. The End. |
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The wake turbulance of your legs pumping furiously* would cause the chute to deploy, albeit in a flaccid manner, unless you are wearing your trousers 'gangsta-style' in which case even a light breeze would be orders of magnitude faster than you could run. *this is the first time the phrase 'pumping furiously' has been used in a non-porn application |
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Airfoil type, or army static-line type? It might make a little difference. The wind can't blow through the parachute. So the wake of turbulence behind you should be enough to start opening it. <<<<<wind___Me________Parachute_________ <<<wind There is going to be some dead area between you and the parachute where air will fill. |
If you came to that conclusion, you didn't grasp any of the concepts. Regardless of the decision, the reality was that the plane would fly. |
He'd better be yanking your chain. It's starting to look like I'll have to make a trip to another building to realign fuzzy thinking and show him how to click on a smiley. AeroE -->  <--skin290
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I was going for the more elusive breed by not putting the smiley on there...  
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The airspeed of the chute would be 0, so it would be practically unaffected aerodynamically. This is hard to visualize because it would be extremely unlikely for the wind speed and wind direction to exactly match your running speed and direction as well as remain constant. Furthermore, the chute would be attached to your back and dragging on the ground below, thus causing it to have an upward angle of attack which is unlikely to be the same direction as the wind. |
I appluad your creativity on that one. 
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