Terminal Velocity Calculator
Where drag balances weight and falling stops accelerating.
Work out Terminal Velocity. Where drag balances weight and falling stops accelerating. Says where the formula stops holding.
Sphere 0.47, skydiver belly-down about 1.0, parachute 1.5, streamlined car 0.3.
Air at sea level 1.225, water 1000.
Terminal velocity
42.78 m/s
154 km/h · reached in about 8 s
Terminal velocity is where drag exactly balances weight, so acceleration stops. It goes as the square root of mass but is divided by area, which is why a parachute changes so much: the area term moves by far more than the mass does. A belly-down skydiver terminates around 55 m/s and the same person under canopy around 5 m/s. Falling is not what a parachute prevents — it caps the speed of the fall.
How the Terminal Velocity Calculator works
Enter mass, drag coefficient, frontal area and fluid density for the speed at which drag exactly cancels weight. It also gives roughly how long the fall takes to get there, which is shorter than most people expect.
Also known as: skydiver terminal velocity calculator · free fall terminal velocity · falling speed calculator · how fast do skydivers fall
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate terminal velocity?
v = √(2mg / ρCdA). Drag rises with the square of speed until it equals weight, and acceleration stops at that point.
What is a skydiver's terminal velocity?
About 55 m/s, or 200 km/h, belly-down. Head-down it is far higher because the frontal area collapses. Under an open canopy it drops to around 5 m/s.
Does a heavier object fall faster?
In a vacuum, no. In air, yes — but only as the square root of mass, and area matters just as much. That is why a parachute works: it changes area by far more than it changes mass.
How long does it take to reach?
It is approached asymptotically rather than arrived at, but a skydiver is within a few percent after about 12 seconds and roughly 450 m of fall.
Put this calculator on your own site
Free to use, on any site, commercial or not. Paste this where you want it to appear. It is a plain iframe, so it works in WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, Ghost and anything else that accepts HTML.
<iframe src="https://www.thecalclibrary.com/embed/terminal-velocity-calculator" width="100%" height="640" style="border:1px solid #e2e8f0;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="Terminal Velocity Calculator"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0;color:#64748b">Powered by <a href="https://www.thecalclibrary.com/terminal-velocity-calculator" style="color:#64748b">Terminal Velocity Calculator</a> from The Calc Library</p>The only condition is that the credit line below the frame stays in place. That one line is what pays for the tool being free — it is how anyone else finds it.