• Question: what is the maximum height you can fall from and survive as a freefall?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sakshi Sharda

      Sakshi Sharda answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      That’s an interesting question!!
      If we fall in a way that our spine is effected/broken, then we die soon thereafter. So even smaller heights of 3 metre, can prove dangerous if we fall on our head or spine which is where most of our blood vessels pass from.
      One case where a 102-year-old woman survived after toppling from her fourth-floor balcony in Turin, Italy.

    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Beyond a certain height it doesn’t make any difference.

      Gravity keeps pulling you down faster and faster, but as you go faster air resistance increases. At a certain point these balance out so you stop going any faster, so as they saying goes its not the hight of the fall that kills you its the sudden stop at the bottom.

      Of course if you go high enough then cold and oxygen are a whole other issue…

    • Photo: Edward Hughes

      Edward Hughes answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Sakshi’s answer is excellent, so I won’t repeat it. I’ll just mention an interesting fact about cats. Cats can survive falling off very high buildings (usually). That’s because they have a lower terminal velocity than humans, and have very flexible limbs to spread the force of their landing.

      There’s actually evidence that cats can detect when they reach terminal velocity as they fall, and then flip over ready to land!

      This means that you could probably throw a cat out of a 20 storey building and it would survive. But if your building was too short (say 4 storeys) then the cat wouldn’t have reached terminal velocity, so wouldn’t flip over and land properly!

      Note: no cats were harmed in the making of this answer!

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Good answer from Sakshi – any type of jump from an unsafe height can have serious consequences, so I wouldn’t recommend any type of free fall unless you want to risk becoming paralysed!

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