You Asked:

Why do skydivers use a helmet? — Pedromax, Guatemala, Guatemala

Marshall Brain Answered:

Obviously, if your parachute doesn’t deploy and you hit the ground at 120 MPH, it seems like a helmet is not really going to help you. Although… sometimes people get remarkably lucky, like this guy who survived a double malfunction:

He basically walked away from that accident unharmed because he landed in bushes and mud. And he was wearing a helmet.

If you have ever been skydiving, you know that things don’t always go as planned. Like this, where his parachute deploys in the plane’s doorway:

Or you might simply fall during a normal landing and hit your head on the ground. A good helmet really helps in a situation like that.

The other thing is the basic “hard hat” function. People wear hard hats on construction sites because even a falling bolt can really hurt if it hits you on the head from two stories up. If you are falling at 120 MPH and you happen to hit something in the air, it is nice to have a “hard hat” to eliminate the pain.