friction and terminal velocity of a parachutist vs a car

[WTE_Galway]

Actually if you manage to drop a car and a parachutist simultaneously off the Leaning Tower of Pisa without getting caught by the Polizia they will hit at roughly the same time. This is because the tower is not high enough for the parachutist to accelerate to a high enough speed for the parachute to inflate. Unfortunate for the parachutist.

This is the dangerous bit of base jumping. When exiting an aircraft the aircraft forward velocity is sufficient to inflate the chute so if need be you can deploy instantly. When base jumping you need to fall quite a ways before your chute will inflate.

Now .... what would make it interesting is if you drove a car off a short cliff (such as the edge of a gravel quarry) of a similar height to the Leaning Tower of Pisaand had a parachutist leap out at speed. I would leave this experiment for professionals like the mythbusters, it could be dangerous at home.