What happens to your body when you fall 13 thousand feet?

Question

After hearing about the skydiver I am wondering exactly what happens when u fall 13'000 feet? Exactly what happens to your body?

Answer 1

First, it's cold and there's not much air. But 13,000 feet is less than half the altitude of Mount Everest, and people go up there all the time. Granted, they have special equipment, but if you're in free fall you won't be in the cold and low oxygen for very long.

As the person falls, air resistance begins to counter gravity. The faster the rate of fall, the greater the countering force due to air resistance. After a person falls about 3000 feet or so, they reach a terminal velocity of ~120 mph. So it doesn't matter much if you fall 3000 feet or 13,000 feet, you reach about the same velocity.

Two things are going to work against you at impact (by "work against you", I mean kill you) - force and pressure. Pressure is the amount of force divided by the area it's distributed over. If you land on your feet or head, the force is distributed over a relatively small area, and the pressure is huge. If you land perfectly flat, the force is distributed evenly over the body, and the force is diminished somewhat.

The second part, force, is trickier. You will have a given amount of kinetic energy equal to 1/2 times your mass m times your velocity (the teminal velocity discussed above) squared. Force times distance equals energy, which is the same as saying energy divided by distance is force. If the energy gets dissipated in a short distance - say, the distance between your face and the back of your head - then the force is tremendous. But if the energy gets dissipated over a longer distance - say, the height of a blackberry bush, which is what the skydiver in question fell on if I'm thinking of the right story - the force is less. That's why rescue workers have people jump from burning buldings onto those big trampoline-looking things - it dissipates the energy over a longer distance.

Answer 2

the air pressing against the body does compress it somewhat .
the air is thin at 13000 feet so the oxygen levels in the body are lower and this results in increase respiration and heart rate.
the temperature in colder so the body cools
the wind friction may burn the person
other then that not much else happens provided the body does have a working parachute attached to it .

Answer 3

Greetings!

There is no oxygen at 13k feet, so you would faint in a few seconds! A part of this, your speed would increase untill de moment that the friction with air and gravity are equal, so it's the same falling from 13k feet or 1k ;)

Answer 4

Nothing good !!
1/ FIRST YOU FREEZE !!
Altitude ///// Temp.
(ft) ///// (F.)
0 ///// 59.0
13,000 ///// 12.6
2/ YOU CHOKE !!
It’s harder to breathe at high altitudes because oxygen molecules are fewer and farther between, meaning there’s less oxygen with each breath.
3/ Lets not talk about the state of your body after landing !!

Answer 5

for 13,000 feet you body is perfectly fine. However, from 0 to - 2ft it will develop serve problems

Answer 6

just make sure you land on your head not your feet. as either way the two are going to combine, the Q is do you want to be conscious for it happening!!

Answer 7

Well, since God created man in his likeness, I would say YES, the human body is perfectly designed.

Answer 8

It's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden deceleration... so... nothing will happen to you when you are falling 13000 feet.

Answer 9

it will hit the ground so hard..accomitty to gravity law G m1m2 on something you know

Answer 10

well the faller has time to ponder his life and the movie begins....then the sudden ending....splat