To ease her mind, here are some stats that I’m sure most people don’t know about: In 2002, the U.S. Parachute Association had 33,664 members (this is a PDF file), who completed a combined total of 2,151,228 jumps.

That year, “Only 1,275 USPA members reported having injuries requiring medical attention,” according to the USPA, and there were 33 fatalities.

So, skydiving is really much safer than driving, but since most of us drive every day, and most have never gone skydiving, it seems more dangerous than it really is.

Also, several people in the room are science teachers, so they’re thinking more about the physics of the thing than I am I can’t wait to go again.