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hackish

The pointy end of raindrops...

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I feel like someone is feeding me a line as I'm the DZs newbie. The guy said that it sucks to dive in the rain because you end up hitting the pointy end of the raindrops and it really hurts.

I seldom accept a story like this without understanding it. So I was thinking that the terminal velocity of a raindrop depends on it's aerodynamic profile which is pretty good. Would a person's terminal velocity exceed that of a raindrop and to a significant degree?

Perhaps if you're skydiving through a cloud that's forming precipitation the droplets haven't reached terminal velocity yet.

Comments?

-Michael




Of course it does or it wouldn't hurt so fucking bad!

I'm not sure if it has a damn thing to do with the pointy end but it hurts to jump in rain. Try it once and report back.

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The little pointy ends can impale you and plug up your pores so you cant breathe thru your skin anymore.



Didn't Mythbusters do a show on that?? :D


Dont confuse things Billy.

Its the humidity in clouds that is has small enough H20 droplets that can in fact block the pores on our skin and stop the O2 osmosis from which we get most of our O2 from.

Its a well puplished fact:
http://stason.org/TULARC/sports/skydiving/16-How-do-you-breathe-in-freefall-and-other-Whuffo-Questi.html
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/sports/skydiving/faq/(look for "osmosis"
http://www.skydivejerseyshore.com/faq.htm#Whuffo
Remster

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I feel like someone is feeding me a line as I'm the DZs newbie. The guy said that it sucks to dive in the rain because you end up hitting the pointy end of the raindrops and it really hurts.


Another thing to really watch closely is changes in altitude within 24 hours of certain types of Solar Flares.
Solar flares are typically classified as A, B, C, M or X, depending upon the degree of their peak flux. Most solar flares occur in or around sun spots as the result of intense magnetic fields emerging from the Sun’s surface into the corona. The powerful energy commonly associated with solar flares can take as long as several days to build up, but only minutes to release.
It is when our planet gets blasted with tons of hot ionized plasma called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). This can actually create a flux in the warpage that the Earth produces in the space time continuum and can affect freefall times as much as 9.7%, making it seem like you will have more altitude after so many seconds in freefall as you are accustomed to, but since you are actually loosing altitude faster it is ultra important to pay close attention to altitude.

Some will tell you that this is all a load of dingo’s kidneys, but it is true and something to consider after coronal activity.
Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

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I feel like someone is feeding me a line as I'm the DZs newbie. The guy said that it sucks to dive in the rain because you end up hitting the pointy end of the raindrops and it really hurts.


Another thing to really watch closely is changes in altitude within 24 hours of certain types of Solar Flares.
Solar flares are typically classified as A, B, C, M or X, depending upon the degree of their peak flux. Most solar flares occur in or around sun spots as the result of intense magnetic fields emerging from the Sun’s surface into the corona. The powerful energy commonly associated with solar flares can take as long as several days to build up, but only minutes to release.
It is when our planet gets blasted with tons of hot ionized plasma called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). This can actually create a flux in the warpage that the Earth produces in the space time continuum and can affect freefall times as much as 9.7%, making it seem like you will have more altitude after so many seconds in freefall as you are accustomed to, but since you are actually loosing altitude faster it is ultra important to pay close attention to altitude.

Some will tell you that this is all a load of dingo’s kidneys, but it is true and something to consider after coronal activity.



I've noticed that the higher the sun is in the sky, the faster the freefall. Is this due to solar flares? I figured that since the sun is further away from my particular relationship to the earth around noon-1 o'clock, that my freefalls were shorter due to the greater radiated heat, and therefore thinner air, but with your theory above, I could be wrong.
Also, I've noticed my canopy flares differently during these periods. Are they related?

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I feel like someone is feeding me a line as I'm the DZs newbie. The guy said that it sucks to dive in the rain because you end up hitting the pointy end of the raindrops and it really hurts.


Another thing to really watch closely is changes in altitude within 24 hours of certain types of Solar Flares.
Solar flares are typically classified as A, B, C, M or X, depending upon the degree of their peak flux. Most solar flares occur in or around sun spots as the result of intense magnetic fields emerging from the Sun’s surface into the corona. The powerful energy commonly associated with solar flares can take as long as several days to build up, but only minutes to release.
It is when our planet gets blasted with tons of hot ionized plasma called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). This can actually create a flux in the warpage that the Earth produces in the space time continuum and can affect freefall times as much as 9.7%, making it seem like you will have more altitude after so many seconds in freefall as you are accustomed to, but since you are actually loosing altitude faster it is ultra important to pay close attention to altitude.

Some will tell you that this is all a load of dingo’s kidneys, but it is true and something to consider after coronal activity.



Don't forget the effect CMEs have on static electricity either! That's why I wear a suit with electrostatic dissipators my arms & legs on days of increased coronal activity.

Blues,
Dave
"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

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What do you expect? ......... He's a scientist:P



Oh, I thought you said he is a meteorologist.:P


Gee, I'd a thought that someone who studied meteors would know a lot about objects falling through the atmosphere.

Or something like that.

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I feel like someone is feeding me a line as I'm the DZs newbie. The guy said that it sucks to dive in the rain because you end up hitting the pointy end of the raindrops and it really hurts.


Another thing to really watch closely is changes in altitude within 24 hours of certain types of Solar Flares.
Solar flares are typically classified as A, B, C, M or X, depending upon the degree of their peak flux. Most solar flares occur in or around sun spots as the result of intense magnetic fields emerging from the Sun’s surface into the corona. The powerful energy commonly associated with solar flares can take as long as several days to build up, but only minutes to release.
It is when our planet gets blasted with tons of hot ionized plasma called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). This can actually create a flux in the warpage that the Earth produces in the space time continuum and can affect freefall times as much as 9.7%, making it seem like you will have more altitude after so many seconds in freefall as you are accustomed to, but since you are actually loosing altitude faster it is ultra important to pay close attention to altitude.

Some will tell you that this is all a load of dingo’s kidneys, but it is true and something to consider after coronal activity.



I've noticed that the higher the sun is in the sky, the faster the freefall. Is this due to solar flares? I figured that since the sun is further away from my particular relationship to the earth around noon-1 o'clock, that my freefalls were shorter due to the greater radiated heat, and therefore thinner air, but with your theory above, I could be wrong.
Also, I've noticed my canopy flares differently during these periods. Are they related?



I wore corduroy flares to work once and everyone laughed at me. Co-incidence?
Do you want to have an ideagasm?

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New technology can counteract the effect of solar flares...It is called the Infinite Improbability Drive. It is highly effective in situations as "improbable" as those previously stated. It was created by Prof. Douglas Adams of West Country University in England. He was assisted in his research by Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ford Prefect. Arthur Dent fetched the tea while they were working. If that doesn't work, try his SEP Shield...but no one will care if you do...


P.S. If you get this comment, seek professional help...soon.



If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space.

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A number of techniques are used to predict the amplitude of a cycle during the time near and before solar flare minimum. Relationships have been found between the size of the next cycle maximum and the length of the previous cycle, the level of activity at solar flare minimum, and the size of the previous cycle.

Among the most reliable techniques are those that use the measurements of changes in the Earth's magnetic field at, and before, solar flare inimum. These changes in the Earth's magnetic field are known to be caused by solar storms but the precise connections between them and future solar activity levels is still uncertain.

Geophysicists in Finland and Germany have calculated that the Sun is more magnetically active now than it has been for over a 1000 years. Ilya Usoskin and colleagues at the University of Oulu and the Max-Planck Institute for Aeronomy say that their technique – which relies on a radioactive dating technique - is the first direct quantitative reconstruction of solar activity based on physical, rather than statistical, models (I G Usoskin et al. 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 211101)

Solar activity is produced by magnetic activity inside the Sun. The more active the Sun is, the more solar activity produced. Observations of sunspots and flares began in 1610 – soon after the telescope was invented.

Now, Usoskin and co-workers have used the concentration of beryllium-10 as a proxy for historic levels of solar activity. Beryllium-10 is produced when cosmic rays interact with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. The radioisotope then falls to the ground at a much faster rate.

The upcoming peak for this heightened activity will crest in 2010 and is my theory for why the number of skydivers are declining.
Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

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Now, Usoskin and co-workers have used the concentration of beryllium-10 as a proxy for historic levels of solar activity. Beryllium-10 is produced when cosmic rays interact with particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. The radioisotope then falls to the ground at a much faster rate.
.



So, if I replace my stainless three-ring with beryllium rings, would I have a faster freefall? Or would it just lengthen my swoop?

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Raindrops fall at approximately 60 mph. A skydiver falls at 120mph. Those little hard bits of water are hitting you at 60 mph.....hell yeah they hurt.

The little pointy ends can impale you and plug up your pores so you cant breathe thru your skin anymore.



hahaha!!!!! I am going to have to use that one.:D
---------------------------------------------------


http://www.myspace.com/rave4funn

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Yes, but aren't golf balls dimpled to help reduce the drag cooeficient?



Yes. But hailstones aren't. So the speed I calculated is an upper bound for a golf ball sized hailstone.

Surely the main influence of cosmic rays on freefall is nucleating hailstones.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

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I've noticed that the higher the sun is in the sky, the faster the freefall. Is this due to solar flares? I figured that since the sun is further away from my particular relationship to the earth around noon-1 o'clock, that my freefalls were shorter due to the greater radiated heat, and therefore thinner air, but with your theory above, I could be wrong.
Also, I've noticed my canopy flares differently during these periods. Are they related?



If solar flares had anything to do with it then I'd expect the moon would too. After all it does affect the tides :)

As for your freefalling flaring speed I'm sure it's purely air density related. Humidity probably has an effect as well. For the time of day it probably also takes some time for the warming effect on the surface of the earth to transfer it's heat into the surrounding air and that's why the time does not correspond with the sun's peak.

For the raindrop thing very interesting - I assumed the terminal velocty of a raindrop was much higher. I guess I'll just skip my jump tomorrow if it's raining.

-Michael

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I guess I'll just skip my jump tomorrow if it's raining



Jump if you can man (if your instructors deem the conditions jumpable)! Don't give in to all the pussified attitudes about jumping in a little rain, it is totally worth it!
Mykel AFF-I10
Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

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I guess I'll just skip my jump tomorrow if it's raining



Jump if you can man (if your instructors deem the conditions jumpable)! Don't give in to all the pussified attitudes about jumping in a little rain, it is totally worth it!


No kidding!!!

If the conditions are safe to land I jump. Rain, some snow, some ice, some hail. Of course having a double layer jumpsuit for such occasions and a full face helps. :D
"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

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