• Question: how come when your body is slim but not fat you can be slower then i bigger person and is it posibble for anyone to break terminal velocity on the ground

    Asked by jamaaltheultimatedon to Audra, Fiona, Gavin, Justin, Steve on 15 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by jamsy.
    • Photo: Audra Benjamin

      Audra Benjamin answered on 15 Mar 2012:


      Whether you are slim or not doesn’t always determine how fast you can move. How developed and efficient your muscles are is important. So, a slim person who doesn’t do any exercise and so gets tired quickly would be slower that someone who is bigger but might do loads of exercise and fitter.

      If I understand terminal velocity correctly, it is when the speed of a object is constant as it moves through a fluid. So a ball falling through the air will reach a velocity where gravity pulling down equals drag. From this it would seem to be impossible to break terminal velocity on the ground, your terminal velocity would change depending on what force is moving you forward and what force is slowing you down.

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