Yo physicsfags. I want to be able to find out from how high one would have to free fall in order to die.
Assuming it's in a vacuum for simplicity I guess. and whatever landing surface would be the easiest to work with. I'm guessing something with a density of 1. water maybe?
tl;dr tell me how high I have to fall to die from it.
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Anonymous2009-03-17 0:26
depends
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Anonymous2009-03-17 2:08
You can generally survive a fall from up to three stories, four stories if you fall correctly (but you'll come away with severe injuries, if not completely paralyzed), five if you're super lucky and fall exactly correctly. Anything beyond that and you're fucked. I'd say 10 stories, just in case. Nothing worse than trying to off yourself and ending up in the hospital, right? For extra insurance, dive head first.
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Anonymous2009-03-17 2:27
Assuming a vacuum is a huge stretch, though. People have survived falling out of airplanes. Then again, people have died falling off their chair.
The equations can be simplified a fair bit if you specify the landing surface to be molten lava or a bed of three-foot spikes or something, though.
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Anonymous2009-03-17 14:00
People have survived falling out of airplanes.
Truth, though without a parachute, it really comes down to luck, skill, and balls. IIRC, the record was set at 10 km, aided by a very strong updraft, deep powdery snow banks, and trees (breaking branches on the way down).
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Anonymous2009-03-17 18:48
I remember watching an episode of Super Human, or something, On the Discovery Channel. Some guy survived completely unscathed when his ass got thrown by a tornado because he was knocked out when it happened.