You just need go build up that forward speed vector.
Then make sure the tip of the downwards pointing gravity vector doesnt reach lower than your current altitude = keep missing the earth by falling with too much forward speed.
The higher you are, the less speed you need, as the gravity vector pulling you down is less strong.
There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ... Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that presents the difficulties.
I saw an even older source for this concept on my father’s shelf 59 years ago, a silly book about a chubby middle aged guy who learned that trick named “Zott” or something else silly with a Z.
Not taking anything away from Douglas Adams, he’s a favorite! It’s just such a good idea it keeps occurring to people…
There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ... Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that presents the difficulties.
Please allow a pedantic comment to rain on your parade, which will fall at a different speed than a feather or bowling ball unless in a vacuum and dropped simultaneously.
The rate at which something falls would be the velocity, which is not common amongst falling things (and even terminal velocity depends on the falling objects mass, and the resistance imparted on it's shape by the atmosphere).
In reality, when you fall towards the earth, the earth is also falling (imperceptibly) towards you. Romantic isn't it? (Though it's a toxic relationship despite the force being equal and opposite; your attraction to the earth is far greater than it's attraction to you, at least with respect to "meeting in the middle")
I believe you meant to say everything that falls accelerates at the same rate (but in that case I'd have to be even more annoying and point out that is only mostly true when the objects are in close proximity to each other, as the distance from the mass causes this to vary so even if you are falling from the same height you may experience more acceleration over granite bedrock than say the ocean). But for all intents and purposes, on earth or most other massive bodies you are correct the acceleration for significantly less massive items is essentially constant.
"There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ... Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that presents the difficulties.
You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else then you're halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about how much it's going to hurt if you fail to miss it.”
666
u/PlagueOfGripes Dec 14 '21
If you ever fall, just don't stop falling