• Question: could you survive a falling lift if you jumped as it hit the floor?

    Asked by 958utec48 to Paul, Jonny on 20 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Paul Brack

      Paul Brack answered on 20 Jun 2015:

      The amount you would get hurt all depends on how big a force would be on you when you hit the ground. Force is proportional to the change in momentum. Momentum = mass x velocity, so the faster you are going when you hit the ground, the greater your momentum and the larger a force, and the more pain, you will feel.

      If the lift is falling really fast, you jumping will only change your momentum a little bit compared to that of the lift, so it probably wouldn’t really make much of a difference to the force you would feel. So if the lift was falling fast enough to put your survival in doubt, jumping probably wouldn’t make much difference.

    • Photo: Jonny Brooks-Bartlett

      Jonny Brooks-Bartlett answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      The equation that Paul wrote, Momentum = mass x velocity, is the reason why very small insects don’t always die if you drop them from heights that are high for them. Because they are small, their mass is low, so the force that they hit the ground with isn’t as high as if a human was dropped from the same height.

Comments