Question about Falling Elevator

[Omegachi]

hmm... this is getting no where, everyone have different opinion. I want an answer that proves everyone else's answer wrong.

hmm... what if you are able to time your jumps, are you still going to die?

and no, no glass elevators, no elevator safely mechanism, no more climbing out of the elevator.

One more thing, we can pretend that on impact, the elevator will not lose shape. ie. crushed, explode... stuff like that.

so....

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Omegachi
hmm... this is getting no where, everyone have different opinion. I want an answer that proves everyone else's answer wrong.

hmm... what if you are able to time your jumps, are you still going to die?

and no, no glass elevators, no elevator safely mechanism, no more climbing out of the elevator.

One more thing, we can pretend that on impact, the elevator will not lose shape. ie. crushed, explode... stuff like that.

so....

Basically it's this: Real life, real guy, real elevator... You're screwed. Your best bet would probably be to try to land on your head/neck so you die instantly of a severed spine instead of dying slowly from massive internal injuries.

Which is why I still vote for the quickie option.

 

[Schadenfreude]

For all the people who say this:

Jump with enough force to negate the acceleration

I have a question: What kind of looney bin place are you guys living in, or am I missing something? I admit, I haven't been to a lot of places, but in all the elevators I've been in, I can easily reach the ceiling of any eleveator I've been in - so in your land, do elevators have no ceilings, or is it just really, really high, or are you guys superhuman beings that can crash through the ceilings?

 

[Omegachi]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: diskop

Originally posted by: zippy
Try and climb out onto the top of the elevator and lay flat on that. That way you have more stuff beneath you to absorb the shock (?) but, more importantly, when the elevator collapses and whatnot, you'll be on the top of the pile and not the middle.

Once you climb on top of the elevator you could make a grab for the rope that holds the counterweight. Well, if you're less than halfway down that is

I still say your best option is for a quickie with the hot chick in the elevator with you.

i got a better idea, get the chick and put her under you, use her to absorb some shock. haha

 

[ObiDon]

Originally posted by: Omegachi
hmm... this is getting no where, everyone have different opinion. I want an answer that proves everyone else's answer wrong.

hmm... what if you are able to time your jumps, are you still going to die?

and no, no glass elevators, no elevator safely mechanism, no more climbing out of the elevator.

One more thing, we can pretend that on impact, the elevator will not lose shape. ie. crushed, explode... stuff like that.

so....

Okay...new but kinda similar situation...
You are on a runaway flatbed train car.
It's going down a hill...final speed = 100MPH.
HUGE brick wall at the bottom.
Just before you hit the brick wall, you run the opposite direction and manage 20 MPH.
Your resulting speed when you hit the brick wall = 80 MPH.

SPLAT!

 

[silverpig]

Okay...new but kinda similar situation...
You are on a runaway flatbed train car.
It's going down a hill...final speed = 100MPH.
HUGE brick wall at the bottom.
Just before you hit the brick wall, you run the opposite direction and manage 20 MPH.
Your resulting speed when you hit the brick wall = 80 MPH.

SPLAT!

It's not quite that bad... If you run at 20 mph away from the wall, you'll have gained some sliding distance as well...

 

[ObiDon]

"Sliding distance" is not going to do you much good when the train car instantaneously stops. How much deceleration do you really think you'd get out of a pair of shoes?!? At the impact, virtually the entire force is directed towards the wall. It's not like playing tug-o-war with your dog.

 

[BigPotato]

don't u guys watch "Worst Case Scenario"?

they did this one, and they siad that jumping has no effect wahtsoever.

just brace yourself in the corner of the elevator, and keep your knees bent.

brace for impact.

hope not to die.

 

[Omegachi]

didn't i say to jump continously earlier?

whats with all the jump at the last second stuff?

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: Brian23
Why does everyone keep talking about monkey dances? What significance do they hold? Is there some pic/movie I have to see to be "in the monkey dance club"?

They hope that they will get as rich as 'money boy Balmer' by doing the monkey dance. Watch the video if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Or they just did the same as the monkey that got thirsty (And that video is also available at a lot of sites).

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: diskop

Originally posted by: zippy
Try and climb out onto the top of the elevator and lay flat on that. That way you have more stuff beneath you to absorb the shock (?) but, more importantly, when the elevator collapses and whatnot, you'll be on the top of the pile and not the middle.

Once you climb on top of the elevator you could make a grab for the rope that holds the counterweight. Well, if you're less than halfway down that is

I still say your best option is for a quickie with the hot chick in the elevator with you.

If it was only you and a hot chick there would not be enough weight to break the cable. Most likely you are in the lift with 7 chicks of 300+lbs each.

Climb to the top of the elevator, you've got massive shock absorbers between you and the bottom.

 

[zippy]

Originally posted by: diskop

Originally posted by: zippy
Try and climb out onto the top of the elevator and lay flat on that. That way you have more stuff beneath you to absorb the shock (?) but, more importantly, when the elevator collapses and whatnot, you'll be on the top of the pile and not the middle.

Once you climb on top of the elevator you could make a grab for the rope that holds the counterweight. Well, if you're less than halfway down that is

You would get one hell of a rope burn...you would probably rip off all the flesh from your hands and still not even grab hold. Sorry dude, bad idea.

 

[Squisher]

The monkey is going to be doing his dance on your grave.

 

[Omegachi]

hmm...chicks and monkies will do no good.

 

[AsukaStrikes]

First let us ignore air resistance, for real-world imaginary physics problems often do this. Then let us also assume the elevator shaft is bottomless and so it approaches the speed of light as time approaches infinity. Now, the only way to escape would be for you to convert yourself in a photon beam and travel in the opposite direction, feel free to use quantum physics to do this.

Now here is the question, how does the elevator feel about you wanting to abandon it and travel at the speed of light away from it? [you may assume it is a Smart Elevator featuring artificial intellegence, or just a plain inanimate 21st century elevator]. There are no wrong answers, as long as you write anything, you will get an A; answers do not have to be in English.

 

[Kelvrick]

OMFG. Why is this thread still up here? You're gonna die, no question about it, unless you somehow convince the 5 other 700lb ladies in the elevator to get on the ground and act as cushions for you.

Anyway, monkies rule! This thread has become confusing and a joke. We can think about it and come up with some weirdo answers that might work but the recommended action is still lie your ass on the floor.

<== monkey dance

 

[Cyberian]

I'm LMAO here!

The cable could have snapped when the elevator was in between the 1st and 2nd floor.
I don't see any life threatening injuries happening here.

Originally posted by: Omegachi
I was wondering, if you are in an elevator, and the elevator cable snaps causing it to free falling, are you able to escape dead if you are continously jumping in the elevator? Or can you even jump in a situation like this? I am thinkin that you can't jump when you are free falling, but i am not sure. so what do you guys think?

edit: no emergency breaks

 

[crawford]

A week or two ago i was flipping through channels, and saw this show called "worst case scenario". One of thing things was what to do in a falling elevator. Its definetely possible to survive, it showed a stuntman guy fall like 30-60 stories i forget but it was big, and survive. He leaned his back against the wall, held the side rail thing, and then bent his knees a little bit to absorb the impact. He sorta hit the ground at impact but he got up and walked out of the elevator fine. He also said that jumping at impact does not work, in any way at all.

edit: bigpotato beat me to it

 

[Alphathree33]

Forgetting the fact that you would probably be crushed by the metal around you and the fact that it is not possible for a human to give themselves an upward velocity of say 50 m/s in a split second... EVEN IF YOU COULD jump at the last second to 50 m/s UP, there is almost no difference between doing that and letting yourself crash into the floor in that whether you jump up or let yourself hit, you will still be decelerating at a rate that is rapid enough to kill you.

I can't kill myself jumping up and down. I don't know about you.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
Forgetting the fact that you would probably be crushed by the metal around you and the fact that it is not possible for a human to give themselves an upward velocity of say 50 m/s in a split second... EVEN IF YOU COULD jump at the last second to 50 m/s UP, there is almost no difference between doing that and letting yourself crash into the floor in that whether you jump up or let yourself hit, you will still be decelerating at a rate that is rapid enough to kill you.

I can't kill myself jumping up and down. I don't know about you.

The point isn't to accelerate quickly in the opposite direction. The only difference between a lethal crash from 100 mph to 0 and a non-lethal crash from 100 mph to 0 is the amount (read: magnitude) of deceleration. It doesn't matter how fast you were going, rather how fast you stop. I can see you understand this. However, jumping isn't meant to stop you in a split second before you hit; it's designed to provide some deceleration (as you are giving yourself momentum in the upwards direction) just before you hit the ground. This will reduce your downwards velocity, and no matter what anyone tells you, that's a good thing as it makes the crash softer.

The only reason why jumping isn't practical is because you are in a steel cage and have no idea when you should jump (timing is critical).