Skydiving Math

Introduction

On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner ascended by balloon to an altitude of 128,100 ft, whereupon he jumped out and fell to Earth at a speed that reached 834 mph. He landed successfully, after accomplishing the highest and fastest jump in history.

I must admit that I was amazed at what Felix Baumgartner accomplished. As I watched the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rAeB4K8yDT0, I found myself focusing on the video's display of Felix's speed versus time. It was really interesting to see how quickly he accelerated to faster than Mach 1 speed and then began to decelerate as he hit denser atmosphere.

As I thought about it, I realized that I could compare the data for Felix's speed vs. time with the predictions from a differential equation. This gave me another opportunity to try out Mathcad Prime 2.0. Let's dig in. . . .