If the shaft were perfectly sealed like a piston, the elevator would only drop 50cm before the extra pressure of the compressed air supported its weight.īut there is usually a gap between the shaft and the elevator, which allows the cushion to deflate. Suppose we drop the elevator from 7 storeys again. Trapped air in the shaft below the elevator may provide an additional cushion. However, air can save you in another way. I’ve always wondered: why do our computing devices seem to slow down?Īir resistance makes little difference - the elevator will be falling at over 200 km/h before any noticeable drag kicks in. (Others have been crushed when the enormous broken cable above landed on the top of the elevator.) I’ve assumed that you hit a solid floor at the bottom of the shaft, but people have survived falling elevators due to the cable below coiling in the shaft, softening the impact. If you are suddenly in free fall, you will need to grab a hand rail to keep contact with the floor. I assume that you are able to effectively push off the floor as you jump, which is challenging because gravity is pulling the floor of the elevator away from you. A moment too late, you’ve already hit the floor a moment too soon, and you might hit your head on the ceiling of the elevator and lose your jump speed. This Mythbusters episode showed that this is very difficult. I assumed that your timing is perfect, despite probably being unable to see the ground. Sorry, but you’ve probably got about 2 seconds to prepare to meet your maker.Ĭurious Kids: Why aren't birds pulled down by gravity while they're flying? Good luck.įalling seven storeys (21m): it’s as if you fell 14m. This is the crucial case, the difference between life and death. Let your legs take the hit.)įalling five storeys (15m): you hit the ground as if you fell 9 metres, which is the difference between probably dead and probably alive. This is a terrible idea - protect your brain! Some part of your body must absorb the impact, but head injury is the primary cause of death in falls. (Some have suggested lying down in the lift, because it will distribute the force of impact over your whole body. Expect a broken leg or two, but you’ll live.
Your predicament is upgraded from possibly dead to alive but injured. You’ll only have 0.8 seconds to react, however, so be prepared!įalling three storeys (9m): you hit the ground as if you fell 4.7m. We’ll run through a few scenarios (more information on how I made the calculations is shown as a footnote).įalling one storey (3m): timed right, you hit the ground as if you fell from 80cm. Let’s be optimistic, and say that you’re a an NBA player with a vertical leap of 70cm. How good is your jump? Jared Sluyter/unsplash It depends how far you fallĪs an equivalent, we can think in terms of height: how high was the elevator when it fell, and how high can you jump?
The speed at which you hit the floor of the (suddenly stopped) elevator is the elevator speed minus your jump speed. At this crucial moment, just before it hits the ground, the elevator is falling with a certain elevator speed.īecause of your leap, you are falling more slowly than the elevator. At this moment, you are (to our camera) moving upwards with what we will call your jump speed. You jump at just the right moment, and lift off just as the elevator hits the floor. If you jump, will it help? Let’s attach a camera to the elevator, so that it falls with you, and watch the crucial final moments in slow motion. When the floor of the elevator makes a sudden stop due to hitting the base of the lift shaft, you too will make a sudden stop.
In this predicament, the key point to realise is that along with the elevator, you are also falling. I've always wondered: why do we get dark circles under our eyes? It’s only when I hit the ground that causes all the grief
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