this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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I got to thinking last night that theoretically, with enough hair, the air resistance would slow you down so that your terminal velocity would be low enough to land unharmed. How long would it need to be? How would one go about calculating this?

I assume you need some kind of drag coefficient and a density for hair to start with. Not sure where to find that information.

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[–] Sims@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 days ago

Fun experiment. Seems like a good type of question for an AI, but if we imagine that there is no turbulence (laminar flow/fall), then hair would just raise straight up with little extra resistance beyond your own air-resistance. But in normal atmosphere, the hair would start to oscillate and create eddies and stuff (like a flag/flame), which would hold you back a little. However, I think that would be like hanging from a series of torn parachutes that also went turbulent (flapping) all the way down - exciting but deadly I presume ?

Without knowing it for sure, I think the weight from the hair it self would quickly overtake the minimal drag force at the edge between hair turbulence/atmosphere. I don't think you can survive in any way, but there is likely a sweet-spot where it helps the 'most'. 25m. ?

The inspired question could perhaps be: 'How much Hair do I need to weave a Parachute ?', 'how do I grow a HUMONGOUS Afro hair ..fast ?', or 'how much Hair do I need to land on if I want to survive without a Parachute ?' ;-)