The skydiving scene in get smart is a perfect example of simulated physics.

The scene depicts 3 people

singly jumping out of a commercial aircraft ( Time of events found in appendix) however, how much
justice has the director done to the world of physics ? ( all values used in this report are in the
appendix)
Sky diving involves a person jumping from large altitudes and hitting a state known as terminal
velocity. Terminal velocity can be defined as the the constant velocity that a freely falling object
eventually reaches when the force of air resistance cancels the force of gravity, preventing it from
accelerating.

By applying newtons Second law F = ma and vector addition, it is possible to derive an equation for
terminal velocity.

Substitute the force caused by air resistance ( http://physics.info/drag/) , which is an experimental

constant and the force of gravity, to get:

Because terminal velocity is defined when the net acceleration = 0 , the force of drag must cancel the
force of gravity ( shown in image above ). To do this they must also be equal to each other.

By solving this equation for V we find the terminal velocity to be:

Using these derived equations and the timing of the events , I was able to create the following
graphical representations of the fall ( man ) by inputing them into physics simulating software
( algodoo), which will help me determine its validity.
Distance Vs time

Velocity vs Time

Acceleration Vs time

1st Issue : is the woman able to catch up to the man.

There is a 33 second delay between the man and the woman's jump, however the woman is able to
catch up to the man in only 25 seconds. By looking at the distance time graph it is clear that the man
has displaced 1710 m in 58 seconds. This hence making his average velocity:

In order for the woman to cover the same distance in 25 seconds she would require an average
velocity of :

In order for the woman to raise her average velocity to such a high value , she must have a higher
terminal velocity than the man. Newtons first and third law can be manipulated in the following way
to increase or decrease the velocity as desired:
Because air particles contain mass they also possess inertia ( tendency to resist motion ). As stated by
newtons first law , these particles will not move unless acted upon by an external force, which in this
case is provided by the kinetic energy of the falling body. The falling body exerts a force onto the air
particles forcing them to move, however due to newtons third law this same force must be applied
back onto the body ( drag force) which causes the human to eventually stop accelerating.

Also the number of air particles colliding with the human is proportional to the surface area exposed
in the y-direction. Because all the air particles are applying their minuscule force to the same body,
their forces add to produce a large net force known as drag. Hence this force is proportional to the
surface area exposed in the y direction and the number of particles being collided with per second
( velocity).

Newtons 1st law states that an object will maintain a constant velocity unless acted upon by an
external force. In order to change her velocity an newtons first law states that an external force must
be applied, which is accomplished by changing her surface area as seen below
Maximum Velocity

Minimum Velocity

Image of
woman

Exposed
surface area in
y direction
(m^2)

0.1

Terminal
Velocity
(m/s)

Because she is able to change her velocity to almost double the required average velocity it is
defiantly possible for her to reach the falling man in 25 seconds. Despite sounding farfetched, this is
actually a very valid depiction of skydiving.

2nd issue : Is it possible for the crook to survive the fall without a parachute ?
To determine the force applied to the crook one must find his velocity at impact time. Because he did
not deploy a parachute his velocity at impact would have simply been the terminal velocity of his of
his bare body ( assuming lateral position ).
However , this terminal velocity is much higher than that of the woman with the same surface area.
This is explained by newtons second law as there is a greater mass hence making the force of gravity
larger. This means that a larger drag force would need to be applied to the body to achieve a net 0
acceleration. Because he cannot increase his surface area , the only only option is for him to increase
his velocity, which causes more collisions with air particles allowing for a greater drag force which
eventually cancels that of gravity.

This allows us to find crooks momentum by subbing into p = m * v

By using newtons 2nd law, the force that will be applied by the crook to the ground can be found :

The change in time is the impact time ( time for body to crush) of the falling object, this value is
shown above. This allows us to find the force applied to the person.

Newtons third law of equal and opposite reactions states that if the man was to apply this force to
the earth , the earth must also apply it back to him. An applied force of 1958256 Newtons is almost
17 times the most force sustained by a human who lived ( David Purley , 120000 N ). Despite this ,
the director portrays the crook to be almost undamaged from the collision. This is a completely
unrealistic situation which defiantly would have killed anyone , showing the viewers that the
scene is completely invalid.
However to reduce this impact a parachute could have been deployed , as was done by the man and
woman . The couple deploy a parachute only 15 seconds before their impact however they still
landed safely. This is because the surface area and drag coefficient increases drastically ( from 2 m^2
of human to 45 m^2 of parachute ) which creates a massive decelerating force which eventually
slows the couple down to a safe velocity for landing. This is visible in the Acceleration vs time graph
during the second large spike.
This velocity is the terminal velocity of the couple in a parachute and is calculated below:

The force that will be sustained in a parachute is calculated in the same way as it was for the crook.

This value is about the same amount of force experienced on a roller coaster, which is quite minimal
and very survivable.
Summary
In summary the skydiving scene is somewhat valid as it correctly depicts the skydivers motion.
However the the completely invalid collision of the person without a parachute ruins the physical
accuracy of the scene. In a way it seems like the director really needs to ........... GET SMART.
word count : 1094

Appendix
Event

time
( seconds)

Mans release from aircraft

Womans release from aircraft

33

woman catches man

58

woman and mans parachute

deployed / crooks release from
aircraft

62

crook destroying man and

woman's parachute

81

man and woman's second

parachute deployed

153

Crooks impact with ground

158

man and woman impact with

ground

169

Mass of ben stiller (man) = 75kg

Mass of Anne Hathaway ( woman ) = 55 kg
Mass of Great Kahli ( crook ) = 157 kg
Density of air at 20 degrees = 1.204
Drag coefficient of parachute = 1.75
Drag coefficient of human = 0.6
Surface area of tandem parachute = 32 - 46 m^2
Surface area of human (frontal) = 2m^2
Surface area of human (top) = 0.1m^2
Impact time of falling human = 0.01 s
impact time of human in parachute = 0.25 s
width of human body = 0.17 m
Absorbed force distance of safe skydive landing = 0.25 m