Question

What do you mean by free fall ?

Answer 1

In Newtonian physics, free fall is defined as the motion of an object where gravity is the only force acting upon it. By this definition then, a skydiver is never in true free fall, even before they deploy their parachute. A skydiver may be pulled towards earth by gravity, but they are also affected by air resistance, a force opposing their downward movement. For this reason it doesn’t match the strict definition of a free fall.