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Question about Falling Elevator

O

Omegachi

Diamond Member
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
 
Can you jump, sure. As long as your feet are touching the floor you can push away from the floor. You will still be falling at about the rate the elevator is though, and will make a nice splat at the bottom.

Besides, all elevators have emergancy breaks, so it is not that likely 🙂
 
Umm if I recall correctly if you jump EXACTLY at the moment of impact you might be able to lessen the damage.
*edit* Whoops, Evadman was right and makes a good point. I need to find that article that told me the misinformation above and sue them. 😛
You'll likely still be killed by the shrapnel from the elevator imploding on impact.
Plus if you miss you'll get even more hurt.

Not to mention this is a moot point because elevators don't do that.
 
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?
Click to expand...

All I could see that doing would be slightly delaying the impact, but you'd still hit just as hard.
 
It might work *if* you could jump well enough that you would "rise" as fast as the elevator was falling and you did it as close to the bottom as possible.

Somebody's been watching cartoons again! 😉
 
Gravity accelerates you at approx 9.8 meters/second each second. That means for each second you are falling, you will accelerate 9.8 meters/sec.

1 sec falling = 9.8m/s
2 sec falling = 19.6m/s

Get it?

So, if you're falling, I'd say you'll be in the air for at least a couple seconds. So, unless your legs can propel your body upwards at like 40meters/second at the second of impact, you're gonna go splat.

<== remembering high school physics monkey dance
 
when you jump off the elevator floor, don't you exert force/momentum, which cause the elevator to go faster?
 
I thought I read it was physically impossible to jump in a free-falling elevator as it is plummeting toward the basement (I failed physics so someone please correct me)
 
Originally posted by: Omegachi
when you jump off the elevator floor, don't you exert force/momentum, which cause the elevator to go faster?
Click to expand...

Yeah, but then you'd wanna just just before the moment of impact. Who cares if you made the elevator hit the floor faster? You just wanna create an equalibruim in velocity with the earth. Besides, if you could jump fast enough to save your ass, you'd crush your head on the elevator roof.

<== laughing monkey dance
 
Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
I thought I read it was physically impossible to jump in a free-falling elevator as it is plummeting toward the basement (I failed physics so someone please correct me)
Click to expand...

No, while in freefall, there is no experiment possible to prove to yourself that you are not at equilibruim.

Psychoandy, or PAB is correct. The best bet is to lie flat on the floor to spread the force of impact in as large an area as possible.

<== physics master monkey dance
 
Here's what'll happen.

1. The elevator wouldn't continue accelerating forever. It'll have some terminal velocity that I'd estimate to be approximately 150 km/h downwards (think, the elevator isn't exactly the most aerodynamic thing in the world, and a skydiver has a tv of about 200-250 km/h IIRC)

2. You would definitely be on the floor of the elevator and have some weight by the end of the trip. It wouldn't be a true free fall because the elevator has reached it's drag-induced terminal velocity while you haven't (because there wouldn't be any air rushing by YOU, you wouldn't feel a drag force that would keep you at the same tv as the elevator). At the beginning of the fall, when the drag on the elevator is negligible, the motion would approximate a free fall, but once the elevator picked up some speed, you'd regain partial weight and drop to the floor.

3. If there was some kind of glass floor, and you had impeccable timing, you could jump just before you hit the bottom of the shaft and you would definitely make the landing easier on yourself. Heck, if you had strong legs, timed it perfectly, and the elevator wasn't going extremely fast, it'd feel as though you just dropped into a crouching position from waist height.
 
Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
I thought I read it was physically impossible to jump in a free-falling elevator as it is plummeting toward the basement (I failed physics so someone please correct me)
Click to expand...

No, while in freefall, there is no experiment possible to prove to yourself that you are not at equilibruim.

Psychoandy, or PAB is correct. The best bet is to lie flat on the floor to spread the force of impact in as large an area as possible.

<== physics master monkey dance
Click to expand...

Thanks for correcting me, had no idea 😀

<== physics dropout gerbil dance
 
Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
I thought I read it was physically impossible to jump in a free-falling elevator as it is plummeting toward the basement (I failed physics so someone please correct me)
Click to expand...

No, while in freefall, there is no experiment possible to prove to yourself that you are not at equilibruim.

Psychoandy, or PAB is correct. The best bet is to lie flat on the floor to spread the force of impact in as large an area as possible.

<== physics master monkey dance
Click to expand...

Thanks for correcting me, had no idea 😀

<== physics dropout gerbil dance
Click to expand...

Monkey ownz Gerbil!!!!

<== electrical engineer monkey dance
 
Originally posted by: silverpig
No, while in freefall, there is no experiment possible to prove to yourself that you are not at equilibruim.
Click to expand...

But you're not in a true free fall...
Click to expand...

Sigh... If you're gonna get technical on me.

Since you are also accelerating at hte same rate the elevator is, you are technically traveling the same speed as the elevator, and so in the same point in the time/space theory thingy. God damn, I forgot the name, ok?! Because you're in the same view from time/space, you are technically still with the elevator and so you are able to exert a downward force on the elevator floor and propel your fat-ass upwards away from the rapidly approaching smusho-floor.

<== monkey dance
 
I'm sure the brakes on an elevator would definitely fail, in the event the whole building went down. :Q
 
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"?
 
After the first jump you would be floating in midair in the elevator until the air resistance slowed the acceleration of the elevator.

ragingbithc as long as your feet are touching the floor you will be able to exert force on the floor and push yourself away. You and the elevator are falling at the same rate. Astronauts do it all the time. The shuttle is actually "falling" towards the earth at the same speed the earth curves away underneith it. ( way oversimplified, but it works ) they are in perpetual freefall.

If for some unlikely circumstance you do end up in a falling elevator, do as people have sugjested and lay flat. Will you still die? Yes. But you will most likely be able to have an open coffin funeral unless you are stupid enough to lie in the center of the elevator. That is where the super duper shock absorber is, and it would punch a nice hole though you. Lie on the outsides for a open casket funeral.

Maybe if you hit the floor 1 button the elevator would open the doors at the 1st floor and you could jump out if you had good timing.


<phy talking>
yes I know getting out at floor 1 will not work, but it does in cartoons. Hell, the mind can do amasing things. Maybe if you convince yourself that you have no momentum, you will have none, and can just step off.
 
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"?
Click to expand...

There is no pic or movie you have to see. I started adding a <== monkey dance one day in hopes that would get people to post more in my thread. Then I kept doing it and I guess it stands out. Some other people do it sometimes when they post in the same thread as me or use variations such as that gerbil dance.

Its kinda like signing my name, but doing it another way.

<== monkey dance
 
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