the.com/terminal velocity
The speed where falling stops hurting more, no matter how long you fall.
means The constant speed a falling object reaches when the upward drag of air resistance exactly balances the downward pull of gravity, so it stops accelerating.
from Straightforward scientific compounding rather than a storied coinage: 'terminal' from Latin terminus, 'end, boundary,' because it's the final, limiting speed a fall can reach; 'velocity' from Latin velocitas, 'swiftness,' itself from velox, 'fast.' The phrase settles into English physics writing alongside the formal study of aerodynamics and ballistics, once people had the math — drag proportional to velocity squared — to show why falling bodies stop speeding up instead of accelerating forever.
- skydiver speed
- about 122 mph belly-down, spread-eagle
- depends on
- shape and air resistance, not weight alone
- feather vs hammer
- feather's terminal velocity is tiny, hammer's huge
- the irony
- reaching it means you've stopped accelerating, not stopping