The physics of an actual golden parachute

[Ryan Thunder]

I realize this is stupid, but I find it entertaining.

How workable would an actual golden parachute be? Would it function at all?

[Gil Hamilton]

Sure, absolutely. I'm sure you could come up with a grade of gold foil that is thick enough to survive the stresses of falling through the atmosphere while holding its shape (probably not nearly as well as nylon, mind you, but enough to get a person to the ground). Then it's just a matter of making it big enough.

So, yeah, there is no reason you couldn't make a parachute principally out of gold.

[Venator]

There was an episode of Mythbusters recently where they made a gas balloon (I assume it was helium) out of lead. Obviously, less stress from air currents, but it's in the same vein.

As Gil said, you just need to make the foil thick enough to bear the strain and correctly angled to catch enough air.

Now, how about a parachute made of folding, solid (not "foil"-style) steel plate?

[Sky Captain]

There was an episode of Mythbusters recently where they made a gas balloon (I assume it was helium) out of lead. Obviously, less stress from air currents, but it's in the same vein.

As Gil said, you just need to make the foil thick enough to bear the strain and correctly angled to catch enough air.

Now, how about a parachute made of folding, solid (not "foil"-style) steel plate?

In Mythbusters they also once tried to make rigid parachute out of plywood, it was unstable and didn`t work. Buster using it crashed into ground at lethal velocity.

[Sea Skimmer]

In Mythbusters they also once tried to make rigid parachute out of plywood, it was unstable and didn`t work. Buster using it crashed into ground at lethal velocity.

As I recall they just used a flat sheet of plywood, which is NOT a parachute, because that’s what the retarded myth called for. If they’d made a big plywood box open at the bottom, and with a small hole in the top it probably would have done at least a little something.

Given how soft gold is you’d have to alloy it heavily to even think about making a parachute, let alone one which actually did anything besides crush you upon impact.

[erik_t]

You might be able to come up with something that would work steady-state, but there isn't a chance in hell that a gold parachute would withstand the stresses incurred during the opening process.

[Isolder74]

In Mythbusters they also once tried to make rigid parachute out of plywood, it was unstable and didn`t work. Buster using it crashed into ground at lethal velocity.

As I recall they just used a flat sheet of plywood, which is NOT a parachute, because that’s what the retarded myth called for. If they’d made a big plywood box open at the bottom, and with a small hole in the top it probably would have done at least a little something.

Given how soft gold is you’d have to alloy it heavily to even think about making a parachute, let alone one which actually did anything besides crush you upon impact.

Adam also made a parachute shaped thing and that did terrible. They also made whirlybird wing like thing and that was scary to watch. The wooden Parachute fell sidways I think.

[The Spartan]

Considering the voilence, for want of a better term, involved in opening a parachute I'm skeptical that a gold foil one is going to be thick enough to not tear but thin enough to actually work.

You might be able to pull off something like mylar film (though you'd probably need a different base material) coated in gold, but I don't think that a gold foil parachute would work in anything but theory.

You could also probably use gold thread as part of the fabric you make the chute out of, but I don't know if you'd get enough into it to consider it "golden."

[Shroom Man 777]

Can't you just weave a parachute out of many strands of golds, using gold instead of fabric fibers? That might increase its strength, make it more durable compared to the foil.

Or, if we bend the rules a bit, we can use solid gold to create a golden glider!

[Sky Captain]

Or, if we bend the rules a bit, we can use solid gold to create a golden glider!

Gold glider might be possible although it would be heavy, it`s gliding trajectory steep and it won`t glide very far. Although I would better try to make glider out of highly enriched uranium because when it crashes and crumples it might go critical

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

This pdf lists the critical shear strength of near-pure gold as 130psi (0.90MPa). The tensile strength of even gold foil can exceed 100 times that amount, also according to that paper, so the shear stress is going to be what would kill this parachute. I'm not clear on the physics of parachutes enough to know how the stress is applied or how thick the parachute is allowed to be or any of those details, but this information might help someone who does.