One of my students just told me that he heard that skydivers don’t need to breathe because the skin absorbs oxygen at terminal velocity. I told him it was rubbish but I thought I’d better check with you.
Do sky-divers breathe through their skin during free fall?
Skydivers don’t breathe?
[url=“http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=63429”]Skydivers and the need to breathe.
A sort-of-related (and equally false) factoid is that skydivers can be injured by the pointy tops of raindrops if they fall through a rain cloud. Raindrops have no pointy ends in the real world.
What about if I shift position too fast? Will the pointy end of my heart hurt me?
Yes. That accounts for 73% of skydiver deaths.
I heard that the other 27% die of asphyxiation from laughing too hard at the stupid urban legends that surround skydiving.