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| How to survive a free fall from 35,000 feet |
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kentl
Member #2,905
November 2002
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This article is pretty fun / interesting: [url http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html] It's easy to dismiss it as purely fiction, and in reality you do have very slim chances of survival when falling from such an altitude. The tips given are still the right ones, to increase your chances of survival a bit. (I've taken a course in parachuting and parachuted on my own.) This makes it into an funny and interesting article. |
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ReyBrujo
Moderator
January 2001
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Quote: Meet the ground with your feet together, and fall sideways in such a way that five parts of your body successively absorb the shock, equally and in this order: feet, calf, thigh, buttock, and shoulder. 120 divided by 5 = 24. Not bad! 24 mph is only a bit faster than the speed at which experienced parachutists land. There will be some bruising and breakage but no loss of consciousness to delay your press conference. Just be sure to apportion the 120-mph blow in equal fifths. Concentrate! Reminds me of a Pink Panther chapter where his house falls and he jumps out of it just before the house hits the floor. What inertia? -- |
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kentl
Member #2,905
November 2002
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Hehe! If I wouldn't have made it on my first jump I would've been injured for sure. I breaked to soon, to break the parachute you drag the two steering lines towards you, the parachute folds a bit and catches more air. The thing is that if you keep breaking for >1 second you accelerate (much) faster. I did it and saw the ground approaching very fast, so I focused and made the roll. The impact was hard but I didn't get injured. |
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ReyBrujo
Moderator
January 2001
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The other way is hitting head first, for a quick and painless death -- |
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HoHo
Member #4,534
April 2004
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Quote:
The other way is hitting head first, for a fast and painless death If you hit leg first I don't think nervous signal is fast enough to reach your brain before your head hits the ground __________ |
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Billybob
Member #3,136
January 2003
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I wonder, if you hit legs first, would they shatter instantly, or would they shoot up into your torso?
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Felipe Maia
Member #6,190
September 2005
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Theorically, the nerve signals work at eletricity speed. The thing is that when it's too big, it is ignored for some reason (at least at the start), so theorically, you wouldnt feel anything... |
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nonnus29
Member #2,606
August 2002
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I broke my leg one time from falling about 6 feet (about edit 1.8 meters?). I landed fully on the outer side of my left foot. My foot twisted under tearing a tendon and the tibia (the larger bone in your lower leg) took most of the blow. I had nice sized fracture although it wasn't a compound fracture (didn't break in two). I was surprised because it didn't hurt that much at the time, I thought I could 'walk it off' unitl I took off my boot and saw the huge swelling. After a two hour ride thru the desert over unpaved roads in a humvee I thought I was going to die. So to sum up: breaking legs sucks but it's better than dieing, I guess. |
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HoHo
Member #4,534
April 2004
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Quote: Theorically, the nerve signals work at eletricity speed. Practically they work at much slower pace __________ |
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gnolam
Member #2,030
March 2002
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nonnus said: I broke my leg one time from falling about 6 feet (about 2.8 meters?).
Should be about 1.8 m, if I know my Illogical units. HoHo said:
119m/s(muscles)
Given that the human terminal velocity is about 60 m/s, I think we can safely say that you wouldn't feel anything. Assuming your brain really does get destroyed in the impact of course. -- |
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Samuel Henderson
Member #3,757
August 2003
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I heard about some lady who fell 30,000ft into a bog and survived. Maybe it was just an alteration of the lady who survived the 33,000ft fall into snow... At any rate I can safetly say that I would not die falling 35,000ft. Most of the people I know seem to agree with me, the few that don't are either unwilling or unable to provide me with transportation to 35,000ft and therefore are unable to prove me wrong ================================================= |
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NyanKoneko
Member #5,617
March 2005
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I like to carry parachutes in my airplane if I'm ever about to do anything remotely dangerous, like stalling. Surviving a fall is much more difficult than it sounds. =P ----------------- |
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Johan Halmén
Member #1,550
September 2001
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A man fell off the roof of a skyscraper. When he passed an open window at the 20th floor, he was heard to say: "So far everything is going well." [on_topic_attempt] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest. |
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Inphernic
Member #1,111
March 2001
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I want to increase my postcount too! WHEEEEEE -- |
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Dennis
Member #1,090
July 2003
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Maybe it would be a good idea to turn your body into a very small package, like this: _ ( \ (head) ._| ) \ _) _\ (feet) Then just before the moment you hit the ground, use all your energy to stretch your body in one 'exploding' move, like if you wanted to 'push away/break through' the ground with your legs. --- 0xDB | @dennisbusch_de --- |
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HoHo
Member #4,534
April 2004
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So you might save your head by breaking everything else? __________ |
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FMC
Member #4,431
March 2004
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We all know you can save your life by opening your jacket as wide as possible [FMC Studios] - [Caries Field] - [Ctris] - [Pman] - [Chess for allegroites] |
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Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003
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Quote:
I like to carry parachutes in my airplane if I'm ever about to do anything remotely dangerous, like stalling. So you're a pilot? That's pretty interesting! Do you fly often? One thing I used to wonder as a child: Why don't people buy parachutes for plane trips? Or, why don't airlines provide them? |
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Tobias Dammers
Member #2,604
August 2002
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Quote: Theorically, the nerve signals work at eletricity speed. The thing is that when it's too big, it is ignored for some reason (at least at the start), so theorically, you wouldnt feel anything... Even theoretically, they travel much slower. That's because nerves aren't just wires. They use electricity to conduct a signal internally (maybe 10 cm), but when handing it from one nerve cell to the next, they use chemical transmitters which slow it down considerably. This is quite clever actually, because it reduces the influence of electrical interference. It also makes hormones and other neuro-active substances possible, since they interfere with the chemical part of the signal processing, not the electrical one. Quote: One thing I used to wonder as a child: Why don't people buy parachutes for plane trips? Or, why don't airlines provide them? Mainly because most plane crashes take place during takeoff and touchdown, in which case a parachute wouldn't help zip. And of course, carrying 300 parachutes on an airliner would significantly reduce merchantability. --- |
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Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003
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Quote: Mainly because most plane crashes take place during takeoff and touchdown, in which case a parachute wouldn't help zip. And of course, carrying 300 parachutes on an airliner would significantly reduce merchantability. Yes, of course. But--and this is the easy argument--I'm sure that the passengers of Flight 123 (etc.) would have been grateful for the service... Come to think of it, this would be the exact equivalent of safety boats on a cruise ship, and nobody questions their existence. It would be interesting if airlines made an offer like this: You either get two items of carry-on luggage or one item and a parachute. |
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Dennis
Member #1,090
July 2003
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Tobias Dammers said: And of course, carrying 300 parachutes on an airliner would significantly reduce merchantability. Maybe six giant air bags, one at each side of the plane, would help. --- 0xDB | @dennisbusch_de --- |
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Johan Halmén
Member #1,550
September 2001
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Modern parachutes are small. Just rent one and take it with you on the flight. People carry bigger bags than that in the cabin. What, you don't want to pay for it? Ok, then don't, suit yourself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Years of thorough research have revealed that what people find beautiful about the Mandelbrot set is not the set itself, but all the rest. |
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Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
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I'm curious. Exactly why are we free falling at 35,000 feet? The only time I can think of doing that would be if my passanger airplane was going down. At which point, it's very unlikely that I'd be able to jump out of it. I'd probably be half-a-mile from the door in a plane doing 360s, and even if I made it out, I'd be the unlucky sod that gets sucked into the engine (or even worse the propeller!). [corrected for tense] -----sig: |
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kentl
Member #2,905
November 2002
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Chris Katko: Read the link in the OP, that's what this thread is about. About parachutes on airplanes. There are numerous problems with doing the jump from an passenger airplane, for the most part its not possible. That's the real reason why it isn't even discussed by people with knowledge. |
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Mae Mutts
Member #3,766
August 2003
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Mythbusters tried the jump up method of slowing down your fall. Buster, their dummy, as positioned in an elevator, which was then dropped 8(est.) floors. Buster jumped up( via a spring ) just before hitting the bottom of an shaft. His speed slowed from roughly 50 mph to 46 mph. They also tried many forms of plywood parachutes. Again, they are not effective either. |
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That way of landing (doing the "parachutist roll") is actually genuine and has saved a lot of lifes. By dividing the chock to the body a bit into different zones and taking the first hit with your feet you get less impact on the torso where the vital organs are.
(Still it was nothing like a free fall of course.)
