[JonnyBGood]

When your parachute opens do you actually get jerked back upwards or is it purely an optical illusion? I'm aware that to some extent at least it's an optical illusion which is caused by the rapid changes in velocity, however the subject was being discussed last night in the pub (where else?) and the opinion was put forwards that the force imparted into the parachute itself when it opens is sufficient to literally move you upwards. This occurred to me to be slightly ridiculous unless the parachute itself when it is expelled from your parachute pack (or whatever) somehow has enough force to cause both you and itself to accelerate faster than 9.8 m s^-2 (gravity yo) vertically up but frankly I've got no idea how parachutes actually work.


You'd imagine that studying mathematical science would help me in this area but I'm beginning to think that no college course has ever had a single practical application.