While dropping a dumbbell during a free fall may seem like an incredibly reckless act, skydiver Jeff Provenzano assures viewers that the following stunt was performed over a “massive chunk of private desert land” and no one in the landing zone was in danger. In the past Jeff has used the same location for to free fall beside items bigger than a simple free weight including sofas, bathtubs, toilet bowls and entire cars.
If you are wondering about the physics of this radical experiment, in a vacuum both the human and the dumbbell would fall at the same speed regardless of mass but with the air resistance of a real world scenario, their fall speeds can differ significantly depending on respective mass, aerodynamic properties, and falling distance.
Obviously Jeff deployed his parachute which slowed his descent abruptly while the dumbbell continued at terminal velocity, greatly increasing the difference between their time spent in free fall. Incredible that he was able to safely land directly next to the weight.
