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this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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I’m no physicist, but I doubt that’s possible. Even with super long hair it’s still only going to create a giant streamer the size of your skull which will not slow you down enough.
Also I have no idea what I’m talking about.
Tried looking it up but I'm not finding any academic research on the drag coefficient of hair as a property of its length.
I do know that drag scales with cross sectional area, but I imagine it would require a very voluminous afro to function as a parachute.
Solving the drag equation for velocity and assuming* a drag coefficient around .5, then for a 80kg person to be slowed to a 7m/s parachute landing speed they'd need a 'fro roughly 10.5 feet in diameter.
*this assumption is most definitely wrong, but close enough for humorous purposes.
Spiders fly on a strand of silk, so I think it should work. A streamer is still creating friction as the air flows by it, though you’re right that it’s narrow shape is certainly not ideal for maximizing drag.
Technically, while wind currents do play a part, spiders don’t fly; they use the earth’s magnetic field to float. Different mechanics.
Whoa.
That's some stuff right out of science fiction. Very cool.