Reply #62: So women sky divers will fall faster than men?

[immoderate]

Uhm, true, they are generally lighter, except, of course, where they are heavier. So wouldn't that mean that heavier people have a distinct advantage in this sport? Does the heaviest person always win? Where are the 300 pound ski jumpers? Consider that when you double a person's weight, you don't double their dimensions.

Body surface? Are they jumping naked? I think it would be more suit area than skin surface. Do women's suits have more area than men's for the same weight? How about cup size? Streamlining? And I know distribution is different, but the effects are complex and would, I think, tend to cancel each other out. Are you familiar with Fermi math?

While your padding out your physics 101 course, (which appears to include some heavy fluid dynamics and turbulence, no less) you might want to figure in, that while heavier jumpers may present more friction, they also have more momentum, which tends to neutralize that.

In ski jumping, the technique is to minimize friction on the ramp (the tuck) and then maximize air foil effects on the jump. There may be a gender advantage there in terms of flexibility. I doubt it though.

I'm for separate events because that's what they do, and it means there are more medals. (Yay!):patriot: For the record, I wasn't accusing anyone of misogyny, just bad science. :)

--imm