Those are called static lines, but your parachute is open within seconds of leaving the aircraft. That doesn't allow you any freefall time in an "experiment."
Skydivers have had Automatic Opening Devices available for years, and some people use them. They're set to open at a specific altitude if you haven't already opened. The idea is that you may have lost consciousness from a medical problem or collision with another skydiver.
Aside: I used to skydive way back in the day. At the time the skydiving community was making the transition from round parachutes for students to square parachutes(the question had already been settled for experienced skydivers). My home drop zone did some testing with a few models of square parachute and a weighted dummy. They called it Elmer Thud.
We used to throw a dummy from the plane arranged to crash behind the hanger where we taught the skydiving intro class. Students would get horrified until a "rough up" skydiver (who hid behind the hanger earlier) came out limping and cursing " my f%$%# chute did not opened again!" :)
TL/DR: dark skydiver humor.
Skydivers been using automatic safety openers for a very long time (the 80's at least). We basically install them on our reserve chute so if we pass below opening altitude at a fast rate of descent it automatically trigger the emergency chute.
It's saved many, many lives that I can personally recall.
Similar to how in computing the 80s is like a millennia ago, skydiving has changed dramatically since the 80s in regards to both equipment and the skills on which skydivers concentrate.
You never see round parachutes, rigs without reliable Automatic Openers on the reserve, dacron (a material used for lines). The parachutes are half the size or less for average jumpers. As for behavior, people intentionally increase their speeds on landing for more fun, wingsuiting is fairly common, and there are sub-disciplines of freefall were people spend the entire portion of the skydive upside down.
