can ony one tell me this..

[Aleksandar]

am thinking bouth this lets say you in an elevator and the elevator is going down at a speed lets say 40 mph
now just before it hits on the bottom what hapens if you try to jump so you will be in the air when the elevatir
hits is this posible

 

[n0cmonkey]

You'd still be traveling downward at a fast pace (somewhere around 40mph). So it wouldn't help a whole lot.

 

[mobobuff]

You'd still be falling towards pain, just a few mph slower. Once the elevator hits the ground, you'll crash into the floor faster than you can crap yourself.

 

[Concillian]

Accel / decel rates on elevators are programmed to compensate for this. I guarantee you will not be able to stay in the air long enough for the rate to change enough to be painful.

When I was a kid we'd always play in elevators jumping as they stopped. If it was possible to hurt yourself in an elevator like that they'd get a dozen lawsuits a week from parents whos kids broke their legs or worse in the elevator.

Engineers are a good thing.

 

[Peter]

Just look at whether your jumping-up speed is any relevant compared to the elevator's speed.

 

[mobobuff]

I think he meant if the elevator became a free-falling object towards the ground of the building. Not your normal everyday trip from 5th floor to 3rd floor.

 

[Amorphus]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
I think he meant if the elevator became a free-falling object towards the ground of the building. Not your normal everyday trip from 5th floor to 3rd floor.

If that's happening, you can brace yourself in a corner, with your knees slightly bent and legs tensed, back against the corner with arms finding any support possible, and survive (albeit with broken parts).

Terminal velocity for an elevator in a closed (heck, open) shaft isn't all too high.

If you jumped up right before the crash, what ensues would purely be a result of how you land.

 

[mobiusman]

Originally posted by: Amorphus

Originally posted by: mobobuff
I think he meant if the elevator became a free-falling object towards the ground of the building. Not your normal everyday trip from 5th floor to 3rd floor.

If that's happening, you can brace yourself in a corner, with your knees slightly bent and legs tensed, back against the corner with arms finding any support possible, and survive (albeit with broken parts).

Terminal velocity for an elevator in a closed (heck, open) shaft isn't all too high.

If you jumped up right before the crash, what ensues would purely be a result of how you land.

I think you would actually be better off laying flat on your back. That would leave a greater surface area to absorb the impact, not to mention that your back is stronger than your legs.
-Scott

 

[Mday]

think of it this way. if you jump, that means your foot is on some sort of surface, say the bottom of the elevator. this means that you'd be going at 40MPH also, assuming such a speed is possible. If you jump, you will in fact, be still going more than 40MPH, since ppl dont jump that "fast" in which case landing still means you;re dead. now, what if you're not on the ground? say if the elevator is falling very fast, and you're on the ceiling. Well, if that is the case, the ceiling is now pushing you down at 40MPH. What if you're floating? well, wtf are you going to jump off of? Oh, the walls... well, if you;re not touching the floor and you're not touching the ceiling.. unless the elevator is a few thousand miles tall, your'e still going 40 MPH.

 

[unlockthesource]

Your screwed. If the elevator has a shock absorber at the bottom of the shaft you double screwed. The car will bounce up and hit you even faster.

BTW, wtf is this post doing on here?

 

[lucrioual]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
You'd still be falling towards pain, just a few mph slower. Once the elevator hits the ground, you'll crash into the floor faster than you can crap yourself.

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA
ain't that the truth

 

[Topher]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
You'd still be falling towards pain, just a few mph slower. Once the elevator hits the ground, you'll crash into the floor faster than you can crap yourself.

"First you say it, then you do it." - Bill Cosby

 

[unipidity]

And if you did manage to jump quickly enough, you would splat yourself into the cieling of the elevator at 40mph...

 

[byosys]

I would probably not lie on your back. You risk hitting your head, which is much more dangerous than your legs. You can survive a broken leg. A broken head, well....you get the idea. Besides, you legs are the strongest part of you body, other than your core (abs, etc - I don't think this includeds the back), not your back. Either way, your screwed.

 

[RussianSoldier]

I'm going to test this experiment. There's an abandoned building with some old elevators nearby. Ill try to get some video footage.

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: RussianSoldier
I'm going to test this experiment. There's an abandoned building with some old elevators nearby. Ill try to get some video footage.

spoken like a true RussianSoldier, errr Redneck.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: byosys
I would probably not lie on your back. You risk hitting your head, which is much more dangerous than your legs. You can survive a broken leg. A broken head, well....you get the idea. Besides, you legs are the strongest part of you body, other than your core (abs, etc - I don't think this includeds the back), not your back. Either way, your screwed.

No, he is correct that the best is to lay on your back. The impluse is spread over a larger area. Your spine will suffer most of the damage standing, including C1-5. Lay down.

And like you are in a clear elevator and can see when to jump...

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: gsellis

Originally posted by: byosys
I would probably not lie on your back. You risk hitting your head, which is much more dangerous than your legs. You can survive a broken leg. A broken head, well....you get the idea. Besides, you legs are the strongest part of you body, other than your core (abs, etc - I don't think this includeds the back), not your back. Either way, your screwed.

No, he is correct that the best is to lay on your back. The impluse is spread over a larger area. Your spine will suffer most of the damage standing, including C1-5. Lay down.

And like you are in a clear elevator and can see when to jump...

If this isn't proof that landing flat will help you survive, I don't know what is. FYI the "solid awning" is a concrete and stone balcony.

8 story jump

Was there, saw it with my own two eyes, still can't believe it. He even sat up and started talking to everyone afterwards.

 

[unipidity]

You can only survive very slow, low g impacts whilst standing up/sitting down. This is one of the reasons helicopter crashes are so dangerous- even a mild crash landing can paralyse everyone on board. Definitly, lie down and asbsrob the impact with the whole body- someone has actually survived terminal velocity freefall onto sand before by doing this, for example.

 

[Atomicus]

Unless you jump up with the same amount of force as you going upwards at 40mph to cancel out your velocity of 40mph downwards, I'd say you're as good as dead

 

[Atomicus]

Originally posted by: unipidity
And if you did manage to jump quickly enough, you would splat yourself into the cieling of the elevator at 40mph...

going at that speed, your feet would probably lift up slightly like in those cartoons. Then once the elevator hits the bottom, you'll fly straight into the ground.

No way you'll hit the ceiling at 40mph because you have to consider the conditions of your jump. If you jump right before impact, you're still going 40mph downwards. If you jump right at the instant of impact, you already have no legs to jump with. Finally if you jump afterwards.... well.... you're already dead :frown:

 

[gsellis]

hah... Let's see, 40 mph is about 56fps. Assume you want to negate it with a jump... we will say it takes .1 secs of a 'jump' to get to 40 mph, that would be 56/.1 = 560 / 32.2 = 17+g jump Man, that is some jumping! But that would mean you could jump to the top of a 4 story building. So, why did you take the elevator again?

I bet the jump would be less than .1 seconds to complete with our short legs though. If you can handle a 17g + jump, the stop at the end probably is not an issue. Therefore, why jump? Just bend your knees a little and go with the flow.

 

[Atomicus]

Originally posted by: gsellis
hah... Let's see, 40 mph is about 56fps. Assume you want to negate it with a jump... we will say it takes .1 secs of a 'jump' to get to 40 mph, that would be 56/.1 = 560 / 32.2 = 17+g jump Man, that is some jumping! But that would mean you could jump to the top of a 4 story building. So, why did you take the elevator again?

I bet the jump would be less than .1 seconds to complete with our short legs though. If you can handle a 17g + jump, the stop at the end probably is not an issue. Therefore, why jump? Just bend your knees a little and go with the flow.

I wasn't thinking of that, but you might be right about the going with the flow. Just like a parachute land! bend knees and roll!

 

[Cogman]

hmmm, What you need is a bus to study inerta, Take the bus, stand in the middle and have the driver take a corner at about 40 mph, Just before he take the corner, Jump into the air and watch how fast you hit the window

 

[unipidity]

Im not sure I follow. If you could jump upwards at 40 mph, you become stationary in the shaft frame and hence would be fine, except for the fact that you are now moving very fast in the lift frame, so squash on the ceiling.
And just because the impluse is the same (crashing into floor and jumping) doesnt make them equally undesirable. Ultimately, the impulse from braking in 0.0001s and 1 s is the same, but the preferable situation is obvious...