malfunctioned.If you started jumping when it was near impact and managed to be in mid air when it actually hit the floor would you survive?
2006-07-05 06:06:53 · 45 answers · asked by tiggerkb1610 1 in Social Science ➔ Other - Social Science
You would die! The upward motion you achieve by jumping is only relative to the falling elevator car. In a frictionless system you and the elevator car would fall at the same rate and you would seem to essentially float above the floor (kind of like the "vomit comet" used by NASA to train astronauts for weightlessness), but when the elevator car stopped you would continue to fall and hit the floor. In a real world situation the force of your impact on the elevator car floor would at best be insignificantly less if you were airborne when the elevator car stopped.
2006-07-05 06:14:42 · answer #1 · answered by John T 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No. A televison show on the Discovery channel here in North America called "Mythbusters" took on that challenge....poor buster the dummy was rigged to "jump" at the right instant but that didn't save him as the elevator ceiling was still crashing down on top of him at the same time. Good thing he was made of metal and rubber cus he was completed crushed and mangled.
2006-07-05 06:17:24 · answer #2 · answered by Lee 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I asked a question similar to this in high school to one of my science teachers. If you are one the inside of the elevator you are traveling with the elevator and there will be an impact regardless of jumping. If you were on the outside (on top of) you are traveling sepreate, but would still need to jump far enough to be away from the impact.
2006-07-05 06:12:17 · answer #3 · answered by Elle 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no you would bang aginst the roof and that would kill you
besides when do you know when to really jump most elavators are closed boxes so you cant see when you reach the floor
but when in the situation it is proven
stand against the wall of the elavator with your arms on the railing and you knees slightly bent can help you survive someone atmpted it on worst case senerios so show that was on a few years ago
2006-07-05 06:13:11 · answer #4 · answered by nycnazifa 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Despite you being in mid air, you would have attained the velocity of the car, and will result in the same impact when you hit the floor. Unless you can propel yourself with such force, that yuor net velocity would be zero
2006-07-05 06:20:59 · answer #5 · answered by mkaamsel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the unlikely chances that you are in the air on impact then yep, you'd survive. However it'll be very difficult to find that exact moment to jump. This used to happen in the early days of mining!
2006-07-05 06:15:52 · answer #6 · answered by floppity 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You would have to be extremely lucky with your timing, but it is possible. I think a better option would be to lay flat on the floor of the elevator. That would dissipate the impact evenly across your body.
However, I think the chances of a modern elevator failing in such a manner highly unlikely.
2006-07-05 06:11:10 · answer #7 · answered by DrTandem 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. The MythBusters did an experiment to see if you could survive and you would still be killed. You would be nearing terminal velocity at that point and no amount of jumping would reduce your speed to zero, so you'd still be traveling down despite the fact that you jumped up.
2006-07-05 06:09:52 · answer #8 · answered by kinsey_ad 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In free fall your relationship with the lift would be as if you were weightless. Therefore jumping would make you hit your head on the ceiling of the lift just before you were killed by hitting the floor. I wouldn't do it.
2006-07-07 11:16:45 · answer #9 · answered by Simon K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, absolutely not! You'd be stuck to the ceiling and be moving at terminal velocity ~ about 122 ft/second or 122 miles per hour.
"Lift" as you call it--are you British/English by chance?
Don't worry, they are very safe and have many back-up systems. Ever heard of it actually happening? Nope.
2006-07-05 06:12:21 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋