h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have seen this mentioned many times in magazines and on TV documentaries. If a parachute is launched at too high an altitude, the thin air will rip it to shreads. I've never been able to fathom out why. Can anyone help?

at a wild guess

at high altitude the air is to thin and the parachute will not inflate properly

I don't know. In thinner air, your terminal velocity will be higher, but I don't understand why this would make the parachute tear. The forces should be the same I think (air resistance will increase as you accelerate until it equals gravity), you'd just be going faster.

Then again, since you're already moving fast when you deploy the parachute, I suppose you're decelerating, not accelerating, to terminal velocity in this case.