Why does falling out of a building mean death, yet sky diving is exhilirating?

Question

They say that if you fall out of a building or bridge, you die in the air before you hit the ground. Yet, if you sky dive, you fall not only farther, but much faster, yet your body is totally fine. Is it true death comes during the actual fall (out of a building)? And if so, why?

Answer 1

Whether you fall off a building or skydive you are alive all the way down to the ground, parachute or no parachute! I've heard this same rumor though. I've also heard that you pass out on the way down so by the time you hit the ground you don't feel anything. Which again, this theory is BS. Who comes up with this stuff anyway?

Answer 2

The fall does not kill anyone, from an airplane, from a building, from a bridge, from a balloon, from anything. Here are what can kill in this case.

A long fall through subfreezing temperatures. Thus bailing out of an airplane at 40,000 feet is probably not a good thing to do. You end up with hypothermia...like a popsicle.

A long fall at low density atmosphere where there is insufficient pressure to provide your body with enough oxygen. You end up with hypoxia for more than three minutes or so, and utlimately brain dead. A fall from 40 K to 10 K, where air pressure is good for breathing again, would take about 3 minutes...so it would be a close race between dying and surviving.

The sudden impact at the end of your fall. From eight stories (64 feet) high, your impact on the hard cement below will be a bit more than 40 mph. Many if not most head on impacts in a car doing 40 mph end up with fatalities. And in the fall, you won't even have the car hood or seat belt to shield you.

From an airplane, say, 10,000 feet up, you'd hit that cement at roughly 120 mph, which is the so-called terminal velocity of a human in freefall. Splat.

If the myth that you die just before impact were true, there would have to be some force to cause that death. And falling through air just does not have that kind of force. Perhaps, the brain would overload and the falling person would pass out, but unless there is a weak heart to start with, I don't think she would die.

Answer 3

There are very few ways you could die before hitting the ground. It would only take maybe a dozen or so seconds to hit the ground from somewhere as high as even 40 stories. Now try thinking of any way that you could die in 12 seconds.

So, unless you somehow break your own neck, or receive a lethal aneurysm during those several seconds, you will probably die when you hit the ground (severe whiplash, spinal/bodily compression, etc.). Even a cardiac arrest won't kill you in that short of a time.

Answer 4

I suspect that dying before you hit the ground is death due to a heart attack (or fright) brought on by contemplating what awaits you at the end of the ride.

If you fall out of a building or off of a bridge, death BEFORE impact is not a given...

Death UPON impact is not a given...

Many people survive such falls!
.

Answer 5

You don't always die in the air if you fall from a building, it's either the impact at the end of the fall or the shock of actually falling that kills the person.

Answer 6

Who says you die before you hit the ground? I don't know of any such evidence - fright does not kill people.

Also, people have fallen out of buildings and landed on top of object such as cars, that broke their fall and they were still alive. Now, are "they" going to insist that the person didn't die because somehow they knew they would land on an energy-absorbent object? I don't think so!

Answer 7

This means at night you're driving on an Interstate Highway and a person just falls from the sky through your windshield and of course they die but they are looking at you before doing so. It is either a male or female. :)

Answer 8

The theory is that you die before you hit the ground.

But if someone dies, you can't ask them when it happened. I think this will probably always remain theory due to the statement above and considering it would be too cruel to start chucking people off buildings wearing equipment to monitor when their heart stopped.

Answer 9

How many people that have survived a great fall have said that they died on the way down ?
With sky diving, you have every faith in your parachute and therefore don't feel great anxiety (until your parachute fails).

Answer 10

Ummmmmmm...could be the parachute thing. Not many people who fall off a building are wearing a parachute, but I hear it's common practice when skydiving.