If you were in a falling elevator and you jumped at the last second - would you save yourself?

Answer 1

no -- youre in a contained system. if the system gets crushed, so does everything inside it.

Answer 2

Save yourself from what?

Its nearly impossible to get an elevator to fall. They have TONS of fail-safes, both mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical.

So lets put you in a cartoon elevator that can fall. There are a few questions to ask. Is gravity earth normal? Is air-pressure and mechanical friction slowing the descent of the elevator? How far does the elevator fall? Do you need to be saved from the mechanical deformation of the elevator, or just going cartoon-flat on the floor because of the quick deceleration?

If I were looking to make an approximation I would ask how high you could jump. If you have room to jump that high in the elevator, and the elevator is only falling that far, and you expect it, then you could make any cartoon-pancaking negligible.

If the kinetic energy of the crashing elevator is a lot more than the potential energy of your max vertical jump, then its over. You are going flat.

If its just a short fall of some tens of feet, but the top of the elevator caves in and the hardware there crushes you then your jumping or not is irrelevant.

Answer 3

No, you would not. Consider the following, just as a really bad example. Let's say you were falling and increasing velocity by 1 foot per second (every second).

So, you'd be traveling at

1 ft/s, then 2 ft/s then 3 ft/s then 4 ft/s. After you've fallen for several seconds, you have a good head of steam going. Now let's say you jump at the very end.

You're traveling let's say 16 feet per second (if you fell from like the 2nd/3rd floor or so; like I said this is a really bad example so my numbers are probably a bit off from what would actually happen), and you jump with 2 feet per second of force. You still hit the floor with a net speed of 14 feet per second (since you only subtracted 2 feet per second from your total velocity) and pretty much get splattered or at least badly crushed...

No, it's much better to put your feet and legs together (for reinforcement), bend your knees just slightly so you absorb impact a little better rather having your bones shattered (may still happene anyway if you're traveling really fast). Protect your head, and hope not to break too many other bones. It's the same way a parachuter tries to land. Feet together, rather than apart, and try to absorb the impact with slightly bent legs. If you take all the weight/velocity on only one leg, it'll basically shatter. You have a better chance with absorbing the impact evenly. Consider trying to snap 2-3 thick sticks at one time rather than just one. Harder to do, huh?

And just hope that the elevator isn't crushed, ot the ceiling above you will slam into the floor at the same speed the floor did, and crush you in between ceiling and floor. But I think elevators are designed to absorb a nominal amount of impact without buckling. So, if it's a short fall, hopefully it wouldn't buckle and flatten you.

Answer 4

No. Even if you timed your jump perfectly, you would only be moving "up" in relation to the falling elevator. As seen by an outside observer, you would still be falling relative to the ground at a slightly slower speed than the elevator.

Basically, if the elevator were falling at 100 mph and you jumped at 10 mph, you would still hit the ground at (100-10) 90 mph. In other words, while jumping would help slightly, it would be unlikely to make a difference.

Answer 5

It all depends how fast the elevator is going and how well you can jump.
If you were on a train doing 100 mph and you ran from the front to the back as fast as you could run - and jumped off - you would almost certainly die (becuase the 30mph you might reach would only decrease your overall momentum down to 70mph.
It would be similar for the lift falling, as it drops it accelerates, and just say its going very fast. You can try jumping up - but you would only decrease the momentum by the speed at which you can jump up - which would be negligible.
Im too lazy to figure it out - but Newtons Laws state that
V*V = U*U + 2AS....
V=Final velocity
U=Initial Velocity (0 in this case)
A=Acceleration due to gravity - use 10m/sec/sec for simplicity)
S=Distance travelled
Jump in the air and time how long it takes you and
you can figure out how fast you are jumping up. You can use the equation to figure out your final velocity going down - calculate the difference and if the final result is above 30MPH - dont fancy your chances.

Answer 6

You would be worse off if you jumped. Say the elevator was falling at 30mph. You would be falling at 30mph too. If you jumped at the last second not only would you not slow down but you would hit the ground directly and not have the elevator to compensate for the shock of hitting the ground if you went down with it!

Answer 7

It would take 10 times the power to extend yourself upward as the speed your travelling downward to even get you off the floor. Keeping in mind that you are moving the same spped as the box your in. this would only get you off the floor and many have thought that is all there is to it but you also have to keep in mind that the air within the box become densed (heavier) the faster you go. during impact the air would at its strongest point and the sudden stop would cause the top to push toward the bottom who force the heavy air to expand and the split second that this air has squeezed would equal to one ton per square inch of liquid matter which the human body has 80% would crush you before your body hit the bottom. so no it is not possible.

Answer 8

Only if you could jump up at the same, (or greater), speed the elevator was falling at!
If the elevator was falling at 130 mph, do you think you could jump up that fast?

Answer 9

No - according to physics. You are traveling at the same speed as the elevator so even if you jump you will be landing at high rates of speed and will still die. Sorry.

Answer 10

Based on Mythbuster's findings your leg muscles wont be able to overcome the downward acceleration, however if you have a jetpack ready to go and fire at the right moment it is conceivable that you may survive the fall

Answer 11

No, you couldn't jump with enouph speed to conteract the falling speed of the elevator.