--- title: Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely», a lesson of the physics course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The faster something falls and the bigger the side it turns to the air, the harder the air pushes back on it. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Physics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/) / Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely # Parachutes, skydivers and falling safely Lesson 3 of the physics course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/0/) — The faster something falls and the bigger the side it turns to the air, the harder the air pushes back on it. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/2/) — Nature uses the same trick: a dandelion seed hangs under its fluffy parachute, and a sycamore seed spins down like a little helicopter. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/3/) — Landing safely is about stopping slowly: an egg dropped on a pillow survives, but on the hard floor it stops in an instant and cracks. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/4/) — That is why bike helmets have squashy foam, gymnasts land on mats and cars have airbags. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/5/) — A parachute's big cloth catches lots of air, and the push of the air grows with the area and the speed until it balances the skydiver's weight. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/6/) — Without a parachute a skydiver falls at about 200 kilometres an hour; with it open, the landing is about as hard as jumping off a low wall. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/7/) — Skydivers spread out like a starfish to catch more air, and dive head first like an arrow to go faster. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/8/) — A dandelion seed is tiny and light, and its hairs make a big area for its weight, so it falls very slowly and the wind carries it far. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/9/) — Scientists found that a dandelion seed's parachute makes a little ring of swirling air above it that holds it up longer. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/10/) — A sycamore seed's wing makes it spin, and the spinning slows its fall, giving the wind time to carry it away from its parent tree. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/11/) — A falling cat twists its front half one way and its back half the other to turn its feet down, but high falls still hurt cats. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/12/) — When a lift starts going down, you fall a little with it and press less on the floor, and your loose insides give a floating feeling; going fast over a hump-backed bridge in a car gives the same feeling. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/13/) — A quick stop needs a huge force, and a slow stop needs a much smaller one, which is why a pillow saves an egg. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/14/) — The foam in a bike helmet crushes in a crash and slows the head more gently, so a helmet that has had a big knock should be replaced. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/15/) — A penny dropped from a skyscraper is flat, light and tumbles, so air slows it to a speed that would sting but not seriously hurt. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/16/) — Heavy, pointed things dropped from a height really are dangerous, which is why building sites need hard hats. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/3-parachutes-and-falling-safely/17/) — A lacy snowflake drifts down slowly, but a hailstone is a solid ball of ice and pelts down; big hailstones can dent cars. - ← previous: [The Moon, the planets and the pull that holds them](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/2-the-moon-the-planets-and-the-pull/) - next →: [Pushes and pulls: what makes things move and stop](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/4-pushes-and-pulls-move-and-stop/) - ↑ back to [Physics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/)