Question

When a parachute opens, the air exerts a large drag force on it.This upward force is initially greater than the weight of the skydiver and, thus, slows him down. Suppose the weight of the skydiver is 956 N and the dragforce has a magnitude of 1005 N. The mass of the sky diver is 97.6 kg. What are the magnitude and direction of his acceleration?

Answer 1

The net force is 49 N (up). Divide that by the mass to get the acceleration, which will be in the same direction.

Note that the deceleration will reduce the drag until it equals the weight. The deceleration you compute here will not be constant.