NationStates Jolt Archive

If you were to jump off of a 3 story building and land onto concrete, would you survive? My personal oppinion is that of course you would survive. Any boday know for sure?

If you were to jump off of a 3 story building and land onto concrete, would you survive? My personal oppinion is that of course you would survive. Any boday know for sure?

Yes you will survive, unless you land on your head or back. You will survive with broken limbs of some sort, but you'll survive.

If you were to jump off of a 3 story building and land onto concrete, would you survive? My personal oppinion is that of course you would survive. Any boday know for sure?
I don't know. You'd have some serious injuries, but you could survive

If you were to jump off of a 3 story building and land onto concrete, would you survive? My personal oppinion is that of course you would survive. Any boday know for sure?

Some people survive (I've heard of a 9-story fall, but the fall was broken by several awnings before landing on the concrete). I have also heard of people being killed just falling off a chair onto concrete.

Don't try it at home, folks.

Depends. I'd say probably yes, if you landed on your feet, but I doubt you'd be very happy afterwards. On your front, the blunt trauma to your organs wuld most likely be fatal, and I think we all know what happens if you land on your head. On the back, probably shattered spine and death. Maybe if you landed on your side, you might survive but your arm would be owned.

if you land on your head you're gonna die.
On your back, you might die.
On your legs, you might even get away without serious injury if you're loose and you roll properly.

Depends how you land, might be crippled for life, proably break a few bones but there is a good chance of survival. I remember on the news a few years back a woman survied a suicide attempt, jumped out the window of a 5 story building and landed on a car

poor car :(

Curious why you' re asking, wouldn't be a good idea to try it ;)

land on feet, bones splinter cut arteries internal bleeding dead in about 3 mins.
Wait how high is 3 stories 3 windows up you mean?

If so hell yeah, probably break a ankle or something, wouldn’t be able to go to Olympics next week but you wouldn’t die I’ve jumped off two stories before hurts like hell but dint break anything. (was into dumpster)

Yes it is possible to survive. But it's a question of whether there's anything to break your fall... and whether you know how to land or do you land properly.

Like when you land, you have to duck and roll to lengthen the force of impact.

The highest ever recorded survvival falling from a great height was a woman who fell from an airplane (not 30k feet, but quite high, probably few hundred), and landed on a tree safely.

Yes it is possible to survive. But it's a question of whether there's anything to break your fall... and whether you know how to land or do you land properly.

Like when you land, you have to duck and roll to lengthen the force of impact.

The highest ever recorded survvival falling from a great height was a woman who fell from an airplane (not 30k feet, but quite high, probably few hundred), and landed on a tree safely.
She fell from about 10000 metres

I feel an experiment coming on...

There's no yay or nay on this. Hell, falling from standing upright can be fatal. It all depends on how you land, what you hit, etc.

There was a news of the weird out of Boston where a guy rented a fourth-floor hotel room for a suicide, jumped, survived, ran back up the stairs, jumped again, and survived again, only to be taken into custody by the police. Of course one of the jumps he landed on a car, but that's still a rough landing.

Yes it is possible to survive. But it's a question of whether there's anything to break your fall... and whether you know how to land or do you land properly.

Like when you land, you have to duck and roll to lengthen the force of impact.

The highest ever recorded survvival falling from a great height was a woman who fell from an airplane (not 30k feet, but quite high, probably few hundred), and landed on a tree safely.

Trees are different than concrete. The impluse for hitting a tree is not near as low as hitting concrete, since the impact is lengthend by the bend of the tree branches. Plus if the branches break, which they likely will, the force of your collison is broken into parts. Plus, you have to consider falling from 30 k is no different than falling off a high cliff, due to terminal velocity.

you would reach terminal velocity surely

If you were to jump off of a 3 story building and land onto concrete, would you survive? My personal oppinion is that of course you would survive. Any boday know for sure?

I believe falling off a 3 story building is equivelent to hitting a wall at 30 miles an hour.

Survive, possibly, yes. But its a sure bet you're gonna be hurting.

As a bit of encouragement, Sgt. William Alkemede, a tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber in WW II, was not wearing his chute (his chute sat in the compartment just forward of his gun turret) when he left the aircraft (the bomber was on fire and so was his chute, so he just jumped).

He was at 41,000 feet when he left the aircraft.

He fell and hit snow covered pines on a steep hillside in such a way as to land stunned, but not injured.

German troops captured him, and for a while, insisted he was a spy (spies always bury their parachutes). Not until he told them the id number of his plane and they examined the wreckage (including the remains of his parachute) did they believe his story.

Terminal velocity for a falling person, depending on their aspect, is going to be somewhere between 53 and 76 m/s. Average is claimed to be 60 m/s (skydiving website info).

With acceleration at 9.8 m/s, we can figure out where height stops mattering (i.e., all falls greater than x meters are the same). By we, I mean not me, cause I'm not a math guy.

More tidbits:

http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/StuntMen.html

Okay, I lied. I get that all falls over roughly 210 meters will result in the same sort of impact. Three stories is somewhere around 15 meters?

Okay, I lied. I get that all falls over roughly 210 meters will result in the same sort of impact. Three stories is somewhere around 15 meters?

I get that you hit terminal velocity after 184 metres. (Using 60 m/s as the terminal velocity.)

Have I duffed again?

I get that you hit terminal velocity after 184 metres. (Using 60 m/s as the terminal velocity.)

Have I duffed again?

No, you're probably right. As I said above, I'm not the math guy. For one thing, I rounded gravity to 10 m/s per s for the sake of laziness.

While you're at it, what do you get for the speed attained after a 15m fall? (Answering the 30 mph guess above.) I come out somewhere around 25 mph. But again, just ballpark.

I believe falling off a 3 story building is equivelent to hitting a wall at 30 miles an hour.

Survive, possibly, yes. But its a sure bet you're gonna be hurting.

I could calculate this, but with all the physics I've had to do lately, I really don't feel like it. Someone else please do it. Factoring in friction is a monkey butt.

No, you're probably right. As I said above, I'm not the math guy. For one thing, I rounded gravity to 10 m/s per s for the sake of laziness.

While you're at it, what do you get for the speed attained after a 15m fall? (Answering the 30 mph guess above.) I come out somewhere around 25 mph. But again, just ballpark.

17m/s. Um...

17 / 1500 (that's right, isn't it?) = 0.01133333
* 60 *60
= 40.8 mph

*is almost certainly wrong*

17m/s. Um...

17 / 1500 (that's right, isn't it?) = 0.01133333
* 60 *60
= 40.8 mph

*is almost certainly wrong*

See, that's exactly why I phrase these things as questions instead of statements.

If your going to do it with out friction, use V(f)^2= V(0)^2 +2a(Y(f)-Y(0)).

Alternately, you could solve for time using Y(f)-Y(0)=V(0)t+1/2at^2 and then plug t into V(f)=V(0)+at

If your going to do it with out friction, use V(f)^2= V(0)^2 +2a(Y(f)-Y(0))

I've never heard of that equation (or if I have, I don't recognise it). That just shows how lacking my Physics education is, of course.

You do it your way, I'll do it mine's, and compare answers.

Likely you could survive.

using 9m as height, V(f)=-13.3m/s. this is of course treating it as a free fall. However, if you add a V(x) component, you still reach the same vertical velocity, seing as horizontal and veritcal velocites are independent of each other.

using 9m as height, V(f)=-13.3m/s

Is 9m 3 storeys? We guesstimated 15m.

There's a true story about a parachutist whose parachute failed and he landed on his head and bounced three times - and he survived!

9m=29.52 ft. I approximated each floor at 10ft. Is this incorrect?

The generally accepted terminal velocity for a skydiver depends on weight, size, type of clothing, etc, but it is between 53 m/s and 76 m/s

If you are at the lower end of that spectrum, it will take approximately 200 meters to reach terminal velocity Approximately 350 if you are at the higher end of the spectrum, so it doesn;t matter if you fall from the outer atmospher (not accounting for lack of air and friction burning you up perhaps, etc.) you still have the same chance of dying if you jump out of a space shuttle or off the top of the Eiffel Tower. you still ahve the same chance of survival.

9m=29.52 ft. I approximated each floor at 10ft. Is this incorrect?

Probably incorrect, as each floors average height is approxiamtely 10 ft, but that isn;t accounting for the structure between each floor such as heating ducts, pipes, wirind, etc. I would extimate for a 3 story building you should tack on an extra ~10 feet of space for each floor. Also depends on the thype of building. An office building will have more space between floors than a typical house.

All these equations people are using assume acceleration is 9.8m/s^2 - which isn't true when friction is at work. Actually, to work it out properly you'd probably need to do some experiments. What your terminal velocity is, and how long it takes to get there actually depends heavily on the surface area you expose, so it isn't an absolute number.

If we assume that it takes 10 seconds to reach a max speed of rougly 110 miles per hour (I got that from a skydiving website link (http://www.dropzone.com/safety/resources/handbook/chap4.shtml) ) and we assume constant acceleration (not a great assumption, but shouldn't be too far off), I calculate terminal velocity happens after roughly 270m. So a little higher than people having been getting - which makes sense since they've been assuming 9.8m/s^2 acceleration, and its actually less.

Anyway, yeah, people can and do survive falls from any height - how you take the fall is much more important than the height. Falling on to concrete odds are you'll break a limb or two even if you land right, but have decent odds of surviving.

After fifteen metres, you'd be travelling at 17m/s, which is 61km/h, or about forty miles per hour. 9 metres is a bit small for three stories I think, but it'd be 48kph/30mph. 12m is probably a good compromise, and is 55kph/35mph.
Der Lieben's equation is v^2 = u^2 + 2as, just written weirdly, I think, although I'm not so sure about the last part...

As an aside, or a spreadeagled human, terminal velocity appears to be about 60m/s. Assuming constant acceleration, and taking gravity as 10m/s (cos I'm doing this in my head), terminal velocity is reached after 180m. For a tucked human, it's more like 90m/s, or after 405m. The maximum freefall speed ever achieved was 321mph or 143 m/s, and the highest speed ever achieved by a human was 300+ m/s, by Captain Kittinger (I think), who jumped out of a balloon at 100k (feet or metres, I',m unsure.) Terminal velocity would be reached after 980m and 4500m respectively.

EDIT: Point taken about air resistance, but we all ignored it exactly because we can't account for it, and numbers make us look smarter than saying I don't know... At least that's why I did it...

There's a true story about a parachutist whose parachute failed and he landed on his head and bounced three times - and he survived!

I haven't heard that one, but a few years ago I remember a news story about soemone jumping off, the first parachute ripping badly, deploying the reserve, and them getting caught up. Landed in a muddy field (there was a deep human-shaped dent) worryingly close to a field. They got (mere) internal bleeding.

All these equations people are using assume acceleration is 9.8m/s^2 - which isn't true when friction is at work. Actually, to work it out properly you'd probably need to do some experiments. What your terminal velocity is, and how long it takes to get there actually depends heavily on the surface area you expose, so it isn't an absolute number.

If we assume that it takes 10 seconds to reach a max speed of rougly 110 miles per hour (I got that from a skydiving website link (http://www.dropzone.com/safety/resources/handbook/chap4.shtml) ) and we assume constant acceleration (not a great assumption, but shouldn't be too far off), I calculate terminal velocity happens after roughly 270m. So a little higher than people having been getting - which makes sense since they've been assuming 9.8m/s^2 acceleration, and its actually less.

Anyway, yeah, people can and do survive falls from any height - how you take the fall is much more important than the height. Falling on to concrete odds are you'll break a limb or two even if you land right, but have decent odds of surviving.

I mentioned earlier that I was not factoring in air resistance. For that matter, we don't know the elevation either, and g vaires depending on your distance from the Earth's center.

it is one of those luck things. some people dont even survive birth, for no apparent reason. i have cases who died from falling off a ladder at home (8 ft or so).

also- the person falling and their physiological makeup throw many factors into play.

who wanted to experiment? i know some asshole neighbors i would love to volunteer....

You don't necessarily have to reach terminal velocity to die from a fall. Generally speaking, the only difference between a 40 ft. drop and a 20,000 ft. drop is the time it takes for you to hit the ground and die.

An average floor is 8-10 ft. high, so you're looking at a 24-30 ft. drop. That's not always lethal, but it often is, and in any case you're looking at broken bones.

well i used to go to a scholl that was 3storys high and a kid in the last year jumped of it for a £10 my god a £10 lol idoit but he still did it and survived and walked aways if like it was nothing the school forced him to go to the hospital and he was in perfect shape he was preety tall i would say about 6ft i think it depends on body type, shape and size to survive

i will just leave you with this

Get It Right The First Time Or Its Veggy Time

now where have i heard that before hhmm

This guy stationed here at Kaneohe Bay, happened to fall off the third deck. He definately survived with just having to wear some sort of back brace for a while. It could have something to do with the fact he is a Marine or maybe just the fact that he was completely intoxicated, but either way.

Using 30 feet as the height, I got a final velocity of 44 ft/s, which is 30 mph, neglecting air resistance.

30 ft = .5(32.2 ft/s)(t^2) t = 1.36 s Vf = (32.2 ft/s)(1.36 s) = 44 ft/s

So if you land the right way and roll you could avoid breaking bones, but you could also die. It really depends on how you land. There was a skydiver who got tangled in someone else's chute and fell 100 feet onto concrete and survived, but he broke a lot of bones and almost crushed his skull. The only reason he survived was because he tucked and rolled.

For the record "One story" is generally considered to be 12 feet, or 3.65 meters

If you were to jump off of a 3 story building and land onto concrete, would you survive? My personal oppinion is that of course you would survive. Any boday know for sure?
You will almost certainly die. The only way to survive is to duck and roll, as others said. Landing on your feet is an exceptionally bad idea, as a good portion of the shock from the sudden deceleration ends up getting absorbed by the heart.

A few people survive this: http://www.eastbourne.org/tourism/beachyhead/beachy_hf.htm each year. But then, more die.
Hit with your shoulder and roll.

Ooh found stats:
http://www.forensicmed.co.uk/beachy_head.htm

I jumped off the third floor once and didn't get hurt. It did help that I landed on grass. And that I was fifteen. :D

What do you guys mean by "tucked and rolled"?

Curl up in a ball and hope for the best.

Tomorrow when I have some time on my hands i'll pull out my physics stuff and calculate all this stuff the right way.....acceleration due to gravity = 10m/s....you guys are getting way to lazy. As for those altitudes about falling 30000" and 41000" that is most likely ASL (above sea level) not AGL (above ground level). Carriers and other upper altitude aircraft measure their altitude according to Flight level not feet above ground and Flight Level is ASL. This is for a few reasons A) your 30-friggin-thousand feet in the air, 52 feet doesn't make much of a difference and B) It is universal, every where in the world Flight Level 30 means 30000" instead of over the ocean it means 30000" but over the mountains it means 12000".

Anyways, yes you can survive a 3 story fall. My friend once fell about two and landed on face. He went to the hospital for stiches on his eyebrow because his face was the part of the body that hit the jagged concrete.

For the record "One story" is generally considered to be 12 feet, or 3.65 meters

In that case the impact velocity would be about 14.7 meters per second.

Acceleration = -9.8 meters per second^2
Velocity = -9.8t meters per second
Height = [-9.8(t^2)]/2 +11 meters

-9.8(t^2) = 22
t^2 =(22/9.8)
t = sqroot(22/9.8) ~= 1.5

9.8(1.5) =14.7

If you were to jump off of a 3 story building and land onto concrete, would you survive? My personal oppinion is that of course you would survive. Any boday know for sure?

Depends on how you land. You will brake something that's for sure.
DON'T JUMP! That's what you are thinking about doing, right?

Can't remeber where I heard this but it vaguely has something to do with this topic. Cats always land on their feet right? And toast always lands butter side down. So, if tape some buttered toast to a cat and drop it, is going to land feet first or butter side down?

There's a true story about a parachutist whose parachute failed and he landed on his head and bounced three times - and he survived!

No there isn't.

Can't remeber where I heard this but it vaguely has something to do with this topic. Cats always land on their feet right? And toast always lands butter side down. So, if tape some buttered toast to a cat and drop it, is going to land feet first or butter side down?

I heard this on the Forum's last year. What would actually happen is the toast/cat combo would hover about an inch above the ground, spinning wildly. We should develop this technology to create hover-cars.

I heard this on the Forum's last year. What would actually happen is the toast/cat combo would hover about an inch above the ground, spinning wildly. We should develop this technology to create hover-cars.
*Jots down note regarding next year's science fair project.*