If you were trapped in a freefalling lift, could you survive by jumping just before the moment of impact?

Question

This is taking for granted that one would be able to identify the moment of impact.
Would the height that the lift fell from make a difference?

Answer 1

First off this question has been asked many many times... you should try checking the already answered questions.

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Let us think about it this way...

you desire is to hit the ground with as little velocity as possible.

let us say that you are on a platform that is falling and it is going to hit the grown at say 60 miles/hr, and you jump at the end.

you personaly will be traveling at a speed of 60miles/hr minus what ever speed you jump at. So if you can jump at about 50 miles per hour you can hit the ground with a speed of only 10 miles per hour, and at that speed you would not be in bad shape.


BUT CAN YOU JUMP FAST ENOUPH

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as a rule of thumb think about it this way... say the plat form is droped from a hight of about 100 ft. Now if you jump at the end you are going to have to have a speed that is equal to the speed of the platform. Invariably this speed is also the same speed that you would need to have to be able to jump 100 ft.

So the answer is no. You will decrease the speed atwhich you hit the ground, but not by enouph to make any differance.

Answer 2

No. This was tested on Mythbusters (an American television program that puts urban legends to the acid test) and the test dummy suffered severe damage (enough that a human being could not have survived). Most experts say that instead, you should get into a corner furthest from the door and assume the fetal position.

Obviously, the distance fallen will affect survival. Falling a single storey is less deadly than plummeting 300 feet, whether you are jumping up and down or not.

Answer 3

No, in fact you would make the impact worse. The best bet, if you could think of it in the circumstances, would be to lie on your back with your head in your hands. For the first few floors the height would make a difference, but eventually the lift car would reach a 'terminal velocity' where the friction and air resistance exactly balance the gravity, and fall the rest of the way at a constant speed.

Answer 4

No you would be falling at a different freefall rate than the lift as the lift is heavier. Therefore you would be on the ceiling of the lift as it plummets and be unable to jump anywhere. Then as the lift smashes into the ground you would smash into the floor of the lift a split second later turning to a soft, gooey red pulp!

Answer 5

hi there your be pleased to know that I have donr various experiments on this subject, and have made some startaling discoveryes. Firstly if you jumped the moment before impact you would probly be more worse off because your then going in the opposit direction to the lift. even if its a glass lift so you could see when to jump, you would still be going in the opposite direction to the lift and would kill your self simply because off the impact on your head and even after this you would then get atleast a broken leg from the shockwave of the lift hitting the ground.

I Hope that this information helps

good luck

matt1

Answer 6

This free falling was exercised in Mythbusters. The conclusion was that it was impossible to survive, the impact is too violent and even if you jumped just in time, the head crashes against the ceiling.
Of course if the lift falls from a fairly low height, your chances of surviving increases.

Answer 7

you would survive for a fraction of a second longer by jumping.But still impact the lift floor(now stationary) at high speed.
The height would make a difference upto terminal velocity but after that no.
How about a fly that was it the lift with you??
Same principle but i bet the git would survive

Answer 8

You can't survive, but it wouldn't happen because I actually found out this week, or maybe it was last week, anyway I found out that there are spikes on the outsides of lifts which shoot out and lodge themselves in the walls of the shaft and slow the descent if the lift is moving to fast

Answer 9

No. because irrespective of when you jumped the roof of the lift would continue in a downward motion as the floor stops moving - therefore you'd be crushed by the roof meeting the floor.

Answer 10

I've thought about this before after seeing films with the falling lift scene and I've been told that you wouldn't survive. Don't know how they know but apparentely thats the truth.

And the guy thats answered above me sounds like he knows what he's talking about.