Thread: When people fall to their death

Clearley it doesn't make you invincible. But if you're being knocked about, say your head hits the roof and you're tense, all this force is being absorbed into your skull and probably brain. If you're all relaxed, probably not even knowing what's happening yet, your head will bounce right back off.

Yeh well relaxation when taking impact is quite true. Take for example ukemis ( falling techniques in martial arts), they are all based on right timing on tensing and relaxation and of course by choosing right places to take the impact. They are not completely safe of course, just a bit safer in general.

But of course, when you get enough falling distance.. well you are quite screwed, I could say ^^

Actually I just read something about "Terminal Velocity" which basically means that after falling 120 feet, you're speed stays the same. So it doesn't matter if you're falling from 120 feet or 2,000 feet because you are traveling the same speed.

The only thing left is how you land, and that is the only way you are going to survive, but the chances are very very slim, but height doesn't come in as a factor after 120 feet. (fact)

If the terminal velocity is reached at 120 ft, then my example, where the guy fell from the 47th floor "proves" that someone could in theory survive just about any fall like that (parachuter etc.). He was totaly fu*ked up if I put it lightly though.

Originally Posted by Unelias

But of course, when you get enough falling distance.. well you are quite screwed, I could say ^^

If you read my post, as dylanshmai and Bonsay elaborated, you can only get to a certain speed free falling. (not being propelled by anything).
Unless if there happened to be some sort of wind pulling you down. But that has nothing to do with this since it would be rare.

Obviously taking 200km of force (whatever that force is I suck at maths) isn't going to be good for you. But theoretically you could handle it. Obviously in practice too from these examples people are giving. I'm assuming you would need a few broken bones to soften the impact a bit though.

I think someone mentioned that game where you try to jump as far/high as you can off the swings, if not I'm gonna mention it now.
I jumped off one of those ones with two seats on either side once, my foot kinda got caught or something for a second and I lost balance I flew probably 2 m in the air and landed straight on my back. I didn't even feel a thing because of the way I landed. I know it's a bad comparison but just my experience with near death (I was about 8 and as I was falling I thought I'd probably be paralysed)

drunk people, babies and people who are asleep are the most likely to survive a fall.

drunk people and babies dont know whats happening, so they dont tense up, and its the same with sleep walkers, there was this guy who sleep walked off a balcony like 20 stories high, and he was asleep the whole way down, so he survived.

and there was this thing i heard a while ago that someone was skydiving and his parachute didnt work, niether did his back up one, but he fell in a bush and survived, but very badly injured.

If I were falling from high enough where I was going to die, no matter what I did, flapping my arms and screaming would be to signal everyone nearby, otherwise finding my body wouldn't be as easy, and could very well end up requiring a search team of some sorts. And who wants to be a burden on people after you're dead? Not me. Although before hitting the ground, I'd do my best to get into a good impact position, and go limp.

You can also speed up, or slow down your terminal velocity depending on your body position during your fall. Flailing your arms, (or just keeping them out to the sides without flailing) will decrease your terminal velocity, as opposed to keeping them at your sides. The greater your projected vertical area, the greater your wind resistance will be, and with that comes a lower terminal velocity. If you were ninja-enough to pull it off, I'd say fall belly-flop-style, until just before impact, then roll to a vertical position, and limply take the impact, making it last as long as you can.

As someone said before, it's not the force alone that's responsible for the damage, but the time over which the force acts. A 20 KN force acting over 5 seconds is far less lethal than the same force acting over 0.5 seconds.

Originally Posted by slash112

drunk people, babies and people who are asleep are the most likely to survive a fall.

drunk people and babies dont know whats happening, so they dont tense up, and its the same with sleep walkers, there was this guy who sleep walked off a balcony like 20 stories high, and he was asleep the whole way down, so he survived.

and there was this thing i heard a while ago that someone was skydiving and his parachute didnt work, niether did his back up one, but he fell in a bush and survived, but very badly injured.

yeah, the tenseness actually goes into the equation, I don't know the science of it, but I'm sure its pretty interesting.

interesting point, at terminal velocity, that is, the point when you no longer gain speed when falling, no matter how far you fall, mice will survive the impact. It's becuase they are so light that it tkes a shorter amount of time for the drag to equal the downwar pull and stabalize speed, effectivly acting as a speed limiter. And the mouse's terminal velocity isn't enough to kill it.

Everyone and everything's terminal velocity is the same.

Obviously not in the open world. But if you get a vacuum a feather will drop the same speed as an anvil.

The problem is that in the normal world the size of something and shape, say if it's flat and fairly light, like a piece of plastic. It has the wind resistance. But something fairly round or thin has barely any.

But yeah, terminal velocity doesn't change.

Originally Posted by tommo

Everyone and everything's terminal velocity is the same.

The problem is that in the normal world the size of something and shape, say if it's flat and fairly light, like a piece of plastic. It has the wind resistance. But something fairly round or thin has barely any

But yeah, terminal velocity doesn't change.

I politely disagree with that (while assuming you were being serious in that post). Consider sky divers who go into vertical diving positions to fall faster, and then spin to their stomachs, increasing their area, and wind resistance, to slow their falling speed. There is a change in terminal velocity depending on the distribution of area an object has when falling through a fluid with any density, such as air.

Terminal velocity is the speed when the forces of gravity, drag, and buoyancy (usually buoyancy can be neglected) are balanced, giving no net acceleration, thus a constant speed. Drag increases linearly in proportion to the projected area in the direction of travel, so as you increase the area of an object (such as by rotating, or extending arms from and to certain positions), you increase the drag. As drag always acts opposite the direction of motion, an increase in drag results in a decrease in terminal velocity, assuming the volume of the object, and gravity remain constant. Drag also increases in proportion to velocity squared, the drag coefficient (which depends entirely on the shape of the object), and on the density of the fluid (air is a fluid) in which the object is moving.

In a vacuum, by definition, there is no fluid, which means zero density. This drops the drag factor out of the terminal velocity equation, as well as the buoyancy factor (buoyancy force = volume*density of fluid*acceleration of gravity), leaving only the force due to gravity. With no forces opposing the gravitational force, all objects accelerate at the acceleration of gravity continuously until impacting something (assuming they are dropped from rest), thus giving all objects the same speed.

The force of gravity depends on the mass of the object, with heavier objects falling with greater force than lighter ones. This means that 2 objects with the same size and shape but of different masses, will have different terminal velocities. The heavier object will fall with a faster terminal velocity than the lighter one due to the greater force of gravity acting on it, opposite their equal drag forces. (Note: in a vacuum, there is no terminal velocity, and it is assumed that when talking about terminal velocities, we are also talking about things moving through fluids.)

Also, any imperfections in either object that cause turbulence in the flow traveling over the object would also decrease their terminal velocity, as turbulence increases drag.

The speed at which an object falls, can be determined by summing all the forces acting on that object, and then dividing by the object's mass to find its acceleration. Then integrate the acceleration to get velocity. At terminal velocity, the sum of all forces acting on an object is zero. Net Force = mass*acceleration, and if there is an acceleration, the velocity is not constant, which is the criteria for terminal velocity. So for the acceleration to be zero, the net force must be zero. As objects increase their falling speed, the force due to drag increases proportionally to the square of the falling speed, and eventually increases to the point where it balances the force due to gravity, which does not change in most practical scenarios. If an object were falling from the outer limits of our atmosphere, to sea level, there are slight variations in gravitational acceleration at those distances.

For everyone, and everything's terminal velocity to be the same, everyone and everything would have to have the same physical properties, be falling through identical fluids, and falling in an area with the same local gravity. If you meant, "a very small percentage of people and things have the same terminal velocity." then you would indeed be correct, but "everyone and everything", is too general and does not apply to terminal velocity.

In case anyone is wondering where buoyancy comes into terminal velocities: A piece of styrofoam submerged in water, has a terminal velocity as it floats up towards the surface. The dominating force is the buoyancy force, not the gravitational force. Also, helium filled balloons floating upwards in the atmosphere reach a terminal velocity, also dominated by the buoyancy force. - Just two of countless examples where the terminal velocity is different, thus negating the assumption that "everyone and everything have the same terminal velocity."

Originally Posted by Schmaven

I politely disagree with that (while assuming you were being serious in that post). Consider sky divers who go into vertical diving positions to fall faster, and then spin to their stomachs, increasing their area, and wind resistance, to slow their falling speed. There is a change in terminal velocity depending on the distribution of area an object has when falling through a fluid with any density, such as air.

I'll stop you right there. Terminal velocity does not change. It is defined as the fastest speed anything can fall at.

Also, just try dropping two objects side by side. Get a basketball and a tennis ball, for example both similar but obviously one is heavier. You will be amazed that they fall at the same speed. Go try it.

Originally Posted by tommo

I'll stop you right there. Terminal velocity does not change. It is defined as the fastest speed anything can fall at.

Also, just try dropping two objects side by side. Get a basketball and a tennis ball, for example both similar but obviously one is heavier. You will be amazed that they fall at the same speed. Go try it.

Terminal velocity depends on the object. Drop that same tennis ball and basketball from a much greater height, and I think you'll be surprised to observe them falling at different speeds. The reason they appear to hit the ground at the same time is either because they were dropped from a height where terminal velocity was not reached, or because the differences in terminal velocity are not great enough to be noticed over such a short distance.

Your first statement is correct, although it varies from object to object. The terminal velocity of a volley ball, will be the same if it is dropped over and over again. But it clearly does not have the same terminal velocity as a balloon of the same size (both similar, but one obviously is quite heavier).

I think you may have misunderstood a great deal of my previous post.

Edit: If you still disagree, I suggest you take a look at this link

if im honest, if i was falling from very high, i would know that i was going to die, so i would make the fun of it, i would also try and go faster, make myself more aerodynamic, so that i hit the ground harder, so its a quicker death and a less painful one.

I used to think that as well. Then I realised you could survive so I thought I would probly try. May as well.

Schmaven. That's what I'm saying. In a vacuum they would fall the same speed because the surface size doesn't matter. Similar to how a spec of dust on the moon fall just like anything else. No floating around. Kick it and it goes up and down but doesn't billow out.

EDIT: Okay I get what you're saying now. I guess my physics teacher was wrong. Should've known not to listen to that geek. lol

But the vacuum thing is correct yes?

Originally Posted by tommo

I used to think that as well. Then I realised you could survive so I thought I would probly try. May as well.

Schmaven. That's what I'm saying. In a vacuum they would fall the same speed because the surface size doesn't matter. Similar to how a spec of dust on the moon fall just like anything else. No floating around. Kick it and it goes up and down but doesn't billow out.

EDIT: Okay I get what you're saying now. I guess my physics teacher was wrong. Should've known not to listen to that geek. lol

But the vacuum thing is correct yes?

on earth, things fall at an acceleration of 9.8 m/s/s. the air does have a bit of affect on the speed, in that there is air resistance, so in a vaccum, you would fall at the same speed wether you are flaping your arms, or if they are by your side, and even if you had a parachute.

on the moon, it would seem like it is floating around because the gravitational feild strenth is only 1.6 instead of 9.8, but it would go up and down, like a baloon almost.

You're right about the vacuum thing, although when falling to your death, there's generally an atmosphere of some sorts present, which is responsible for the terminal velocity. However, there's always the possibility of falling out of a space craft, onto the surface of a moon, or hitting some space debris, in which case you could speed up or slow your rotation by tucking your arms and legs in, or reaching out as far as you can. In this way, you could try to hit whatever surface in a certain position, such as feet first, or head first, whatever you prefer.

Originally Posted by slash112

on earth, things fall at an acceleration of 9.8 m/s/s. the air does have a bit of affect on the speed, in that there is air resistance, so in a vaccum, you would fall at the same speed wether you are flaping your arms, or if they are by your side, and even if you had a parachute.

on the moon, it would seem like it is floating around because the gravitational feild strenth is only 1.6 instead of 9.8, but it would go up and down, like a baloon almost.

I've heard it just goes up and down. Because there is no air up there, no atmosphere. Like, obviously it takes a little longer. But it doesn't billow out all over the place like it does here. I dunno, maybe I'm arguing something I don't really understand. But I think that was one of the things the moon landing conspiracy people said, that it wasn't puffing up all over the place. When in actual fact it shouldn't. Maybe I'm mistaken.

On the moon, the only forces that would affect dust particles, would be gravity (causing the up and down motion) and whatever the initial disturbance is. If you kicked a pile of moon dust, it would scatter in the direction parallel to the applied force, which may have both vertical and horizontal components to it. The difference between kicking moon dust, and earth dust, is that on the moon, there is no atmosphere to affect the initial trajectory of the particles, so they would follow a parabolic path until they landed on the surface again. On earth, air currents easily cause the particles to drift significantly off course, giving things a much more chaotic path.

In short, things only move up and down on the moon if the initial disturbance has only vertical components. Friction, still applies, as well as momentum and energy conservation, meaning collisions behave in much the same way, differing most noticeably in what happens after the collision occurs.

Originally Posted by tommo

Everyone and everything's terminal velocity is the same.

Obviously not in the open world. But if you get a vacuum a feather will drop the same speed as an anvil.

The problem is that in the normal world the size of something and shape, say if it's flat and fairly light, like a piece of plastic. It has the wind resistance. But something fairly round or thin has barely any.

But yeah, terminal velocity doesn't change.

dropping that mouse off the empire state building won't agree with you.

Originally Posted by Mysteryhunter

Why do they flap their arms about & scream? Do they really think it will help them?

I believe it's the body involuntarily trying to find a sense of balance. Trying to "control" the fall - even beyond the point of futility. It's not something that is done consciously. It is instinct.

Originally Posted by dylanshmai

dropping that mouse off the empire state building won't agree with you.

Well, not really. We are sort of the same shape. Obviously they are just smaller. But they are also lighter so it evens out. So they would fall at ABOUT the same speed as us. I would guess anyway. As I said I suck at maths, but I think it's pretty obvious they wouldn't survive. Go try it.

As someone who's fallen from a great distance before I can tell you it's not so much flapping as really quick circles that you're making, and you do so because it's propelling you a little bit and slowing you down. I never screamed, but my arms were instinctively moving in cycles as though to take air pressure from my sides and in retrospect it did help some.

I also don't understand why people 'run' in the air. Usually if falling or jumping I just stay still lol. Maybe get ready to land that's all.