A problem with air resistance! Despite your parents warnings, you decide to go s

Question

A problem with air resistance! Despite your parents warnings, you decide to go sky-diving. You jump out of a plane, and after a short while achieve something known as terminal velocity, in which the effects of air resistance (acting upward) exactly balance the downward force of gravity. As a result, you no longer accelerate but rather travel at a constant (maximum) speed - your terminal velocity. While falling over a distance of 544 m, how much work is being done to you by air resistance, assuming you have a mass of 79.3 kg? Express your answer in kJ (kilojoules).

Explanation / Answer

while falling with constant terminal velocity, the net workdone on you must be zero according to work-energy theorem.

but, gravity does positive work and air resistatnce does negative wotk.

Wnet = W_gravity + W_air

0 = W_gravity + W_air

W_air = -W_gravity

= -F*d

= -m*g*d

= -79.3*9.8*544

= -422764.16 J

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