2007-04-02 03:39:15 · 6 answers · asked by john 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
It's possible that you will survive such a fall, but the likelihood is not great.
2007-04-02 03:46:59 · answer #1 · answered by mom2trinityj 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, the Reader's Digest ran two separate stories over many years on "I Fell 20,000 feet and lived!" or something like that. Can a helicopter fly high enough to allow the person to come to terminal velocity?
Having a terminal velocity close to 200 mph wouldn't kill anyone until they land. It depends on what they land on. The Reader's Digest guy fell into a deep snowdrift. They dug him out and he had some broken bones.
Another guy crashed into a tree and the branches bent and absorbed the impact of his fall. Some branches probably broke so that the energy of the fall went into work done in breaking them. Thank goodness, or the branches will bend (p.e.) and recoil and throw him upwards again.
Your question was saying he would "land into the ocean" -- that will depend on whether the impact on the surface knocked the breath out of him and broke any bones. If he went in quite prepared like a high diver and with his lungs full of air, why can't he survive?
Other things can kill the guy -- getting the bends on surfacing, and being in the water all wounded with no help arriving, and maybe, sharks.
2007-04-02 13:27:48 · answer #2 · answered by Minerva 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No way! Terminal velocity is over two hundred miles an hour!! If you hit water going that speed it would be like hitting a brick wall. The water wouldn't have time to displace itself so your body would smack the water and crush under the pressure.
2007-04-02 11:38:52 · answer #3 · answered by johnny 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Terminal velocity on Earth is 220 miles/hour....doubtful you would live...it's why US forces would chopper out over the South China Sea with Viet Cong prisoners and drop them.
The rate of acceleration is 32 m/sec/sec
2007-04-02 10:48:55 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. The density of what you land on is at least as important as its rigidity. Water is dense = you die. The very few people who have survived falls from airplanes with no chute at all land on something of low density, like a tree canopy or snow.
2007-04-02 21:22:30 · answer #5 · answered by Dr. R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no as you hit the water it will kill you
2007-04-02 10:47:59 · answer #6 · answered by dumplingmuffin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋