• Riddle me this: Would a person be able to survive, if he dove into water at terminal velocity?
    29 replies, posted
One of those Brain farts i wanna share with the world... If some guy, would jump out from a plane or helicopter, or WHATEVER, no suit or anything, and he assumed the most hydrodynamic position upon entry of the water surface at terminal velocity ... [b] ... Would he be able to survive?[/b]
no, it would be like hitting concreate
[QUOTE=absolalone111;36312652]no, it would be like hitting concreate[/QUOTE] If he took the diving position, wouldn't his hands break the surface enough as he really hits the water?
No, the force would break his fingers and arms, then pulverise his skull, he would concertina to the size of a can. Hitting most things at 988kmh would kill you.
You have to keep in mind that even once you break the surface, the water is going to be displaced by your body (very quickly). Water is similar in density to you, so this would result in some pretty nasty inertial forces. I imagine you'd be pretty fucked up. That said, if I found myself falling into water from a great height, I'd probably try go toe first and brace my neck / head...
Dunno, try it.
[QUOTE=Little Green;36312710]You have to keep in mind that even once you break the surface, the water is going to be displaced by your body (very quickly). Water is similar in density to you, so this would result in some pretty nasty inertial forces. I imagine you'd be pretty fucked up. That said, if I found myself falling into water from a great height, I'd probably try go toe first and brace my neck / head...[/QUOTE] spread out to increase your surface area, and decrease your speed
[QUOTE=absolalone111;36312698]No, the force would break his fingers and arms, then pulverise his skull, he would concertina to the size of a can. Hitting most things at 988kmh would kill you.[/QUOTE] Excuse me, what? 988km/h?
[QUOTE=absolalone111;36312718]spread out to increase your surface area, and decrease your speed[/QUOTE] That first, yes.
Water is pretty much a solid surface when you fall into it at high speed, unlike how most movies and video games would have you believe. Stings like fuck even from safe heights.
[QUOTE=lekkimsm;36312722]Excuse me, what? 988km/h?[/QUOTE] That is terminal velocity
[QUOTE=lekkimsm;36312722]Excuse me, what? 988km/h?[/QUOTE] Yeah, it's wrong, the true speed is about 55 meters per second or about 200 kph.
Terminal velocity of a human is 117-125mph, sorry got it wrong in free fall position its 122mph. It is imposible to fall as fast as terminal velocity Edit: you would still die
[QUOTE=Glorbo;36312751]Yeah, it's wrong, the true speed is about 55 meters per second or about 200 kph.[/QUOTE] yeah, that made no sense to me either. Hes thinking of Joseph Kittinger, who made the jump from over 30.000 feet in 1960, But you wouldn't be able to maintain that sort of speed when getting closer to the water due to aerodynamic drag...
My dad just helpfully said "Unless the water is high up" you are right, but you would still die
No. Water is not soft. At all. This is why jumping onto your front hurts, even on a small drop.
I guess it would be possible, but even if you do survive, most of your bones would be pulverized and you'd probably drown.
[QUOTE=absolalone111;36312787]My dad just helpfully said "Unless the water is high up" you are right, but you would still die[/QUOTE] I found some snippets, giving a realistic guess about speeds: [i]"However, by diving or "standing up"in free fall, any experienced skydiver can learn to reach speeds of over 160-180MPH. Speeds of over 200MPH require significant practice to achieve. The record free fall speed, done without any special equipment, is 321MPH. Obviously, it is desirable to slow back down to 110MPH before parachute opening." [B](143 m/s = 514 kmh = 319 mph)[/i][/B] [I]"The more compact and dense the object, the higher its terminal velocity will be. Typical examples are the following: raindrop, 25 ft/s, human being, 250 ft/s." [B](76 m/s = 273 kmh = 170 mph) [/I][/B] ... So; entry at anywhere from 170 mph to 319 mph ...
Doesn't matter how you land. You will die. As someone pointed out, if it hurts and you get red if you land on your back/stomach when jumping from a few feet. Hitting the water at terminal velocity will be equal to landing on concrete.
Breaking the surface tension should be possible somehow, if you make a pointy enough shape?
[QUOTE=lekkimsm;36313413]Breaking the surface tension should be possible somehow, if you make a pointy enough shape?[/QUOTE] Yes and no. Yes, you kind-of break the surface tension. No, you'd be long dead before it's broken enough to save your life.
Welp, i did it in grand theft auto, so it must work!
In Garry's Mod you can survive any fall as long as you land on water. Therefore it is possible in real life.
[QUOTE=lekkimsm;36313413]Breaking the surface tension should be possible somehow, if you make a pointy enough shape?[/QUOTE] Again, even if you do overcome the surface tension you're still pushing a whole bunch of water out of the way in a very small amount of time. (Roughly the same mass of water as your own body's mass). Large acceleration of water - large forces involved. I don't have any numbers to show whether this alone would be lethal but my point is that reaching some magical penetration threshold of the surface with your fingertips doesn't mean the rest of your organs aren't going to be reduced to pink goop.
What about in the xXx movie with Ice Cube, where at the end he's falling and he fires a grenade launcher into the water below which makes a big explosion which breaks the surface tension and allows him to land unscathed?
[QUOTE=rivershark;36313621]What about in the xXx movie with Ice Cube, where at the end he's falling and he fires a grenade launcher into the water below which makes a big explosion which breaks the surface tension and allows him to land unscathed?[/QUOTE] It would be pretty great if instead he fired the grenade, survived the fall before the explosion and then got blown to pieces.
Imagine how badly doing a belly flop on accident into a pool just from ground level hurts. You know, how it feels like your torso has been split in two? Kay, now imagine that at "anywhere from 170 mph to 319 mph". Wouldn't feel very good.
[QUOTE=justin1992;36313977]Imagine how badly doing a belly flop on accident into a pool just from ground level hurts. You know, how it feels like your torso has been split in two? Kay, now imagine that at "anywhere from 170 mph to 319 mph". Wouldn't feel very good.[/QUOTE] I'd imagine your torso would actually split into two. Or more. Probably more.
EXTREME BELLYFLOP [highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("Posting a Ban me" - Craptasket))[/highlight] [highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("Posting ban me on alt [fixed]" - Craptasket))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=absolalone111;36312718]spread out to increase your surface area, and decrease your speed[/QUOTE] If we're being serious you actually would spread out as you're falling so as to increase air resistance and slow yourself down, and then as you came closer to hitting the water you'd go into a more aerodynamic shape. You'd probably still be fucked though, let's face it.
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