eg. will the brain die before the person really hits the ground?
2007-10-09 04:36:13 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
No.
When falling, it is the impact with the ground that will kill you.
Even if you have a heart-attack on the way down, brain-death will take around 4 minutes after your heart stops, so you'll still be alive when you hit the ground.
2007-10-09 04:39:38 · answer #1 · answered by gribbling 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. However you are forgetting the worst part is that you might not die after hitting the ground. You might just land in a way that snaps your spine and they will make heroic efforts to keep you alive as a quadriplegic with no limb control. You would then have years to think about that jump (and of course that assumes you did not suffer enough brain damage that your ability to think was eliminated).
2007-10-09 13:27:09 · answer #2 · answered by Rich Z 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some say that bridge jumpers have heart attacks b4 they hit the ground. That's an urban myth. They die from impact.
2007-10-09 12:40:40 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with gribbling, and just in the interest of being nit-pickingly complete, you also have to assume that you don't hit any flagpoles or other life-ending obstacles on your way down. But yeah, it's the sudden stop that kills you, not the fall itself.
2007-10-09 11:41:53 · answer #4 · answered by Lucas C 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope. The splat will kill you, but the fall won't. (Consider a parachute.)
2007-10-09 11:41:45 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋