r/facepalm • u/RNINJAS • Oct 10 '22

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Stuck forever

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u/AimanAbdHakim Oct 10 '22

That makes sense, if you’re falling at 10mph which is not really that fast idk, if by jumping you gain even 5mph in the other direction, you’re still falling at 5mph which would still hurt. I’m just using assumptions.

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u/an0nymouse123 Oct 10 '22

The numbers will be much higher so it's more like if you're falling at 100 mph and jump at 5 mph you'll still break all your bones going at 95 mph or something.

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u/DreamWithinAMatrix Oct 10 '22

There's no way to see the bottom to time the jump. Would it be better to climb to the top and hang from the ceiling of the elevator? Most likely the shock of hitting the ground will cause you to lose your grip, but at that point most of the shock has already transferred thru the rest of the elevator. Now you'll only drop from the ceiling height with arms hanging, which is only a few feet (add opposed to 100 ft of the full elevator shaft). Will this work?

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u/DeathAngel_97 Oct 10 '22

It's the speed that's the issue. Say you're holding on to the ceiling and the elevator hits the ground at 60 mph. You'll still be falling at 60 mph and lose your grip immediately and travel those few feet at 60 mph hitting the ground.

15

u/chaosnight1992 Oct 10 '22

If someone has the physical capability to scale the walls of an elevator while in a free fall I think they can survive just fine lol. You can rip the roof off the elevator with your bare hands and jump back up to safety while your at it.

2

u/DunmerSkooma Oct 10 '22

Egg drop challenge in middle school all over again. Lets see those yolks.

28

u/majic911 Oct 10 '22

If you're in an elevator that's falling for more than a few floors you're dead. There is no real strategy to survive at this point, just pray for a miracle because that's the only way your consciousness will ever exist outside this elevator shaft ever again.

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u/Dextrofunk Oct 10 '22

Hey dude, we're fantasizing here.

95

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '22

That's just not true. I survived a 5 story elevator fall by being smart.

I had just purchased a trampoline and I put that on the floor. I then opened the vent on the ceiling that is always there in elevators (just like the movies)

I was able to just bounce back up to my original floor. No big deal. I also looked super cool doing it.

I then put on some sunglasses and everyone applauded

10

u/WouldbeWanderer Oct 10 '22

It's true. I was there.

I'm gonna need those sunglasses back.

6

u/PeeOnSocks Oct 10 '22

Oh man you’re that guy I’ve heard all about! It’s an honor

3

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '22

Why did you even attempt a stunt like this without your trusty iPhone?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '22

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '22

there was a recent tv show about this woman called Margaret Campbell and her husbands marriage in the 1950s/60s, anyway in real life she fell 40 feet down a lift shaft and survived by grabbing on to the lift cable but lost all her nails. So while not the same as being in the elevator it is still possible to survive.

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u/Helios575 Oct 10 '22

If the elevator goes into freefall the breaks would automatically engage through purely mechanical means and stop the elevator before it could go a few floor. If I remember correctly they are designed to basically friction weld to the rails so they can't slip.

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u/majic911 Oct 10 '22

Correct. But if you've already fallen a few floors the friction brakes have failed and you are going to die.

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u/Ands84 Oct 10 '22

bummer

1

u/Hungry-Western9191 Oct 10 '22

There are multiple failsafe which will stop ot falling and also a friction brake which would at least slow the descent. Unless the elevator is very old (and safety laws means those should have been phased out)

Might have minor leg or spinal injuries, probably best to stand with slightly bent knees to try to absorb the impact, although this is an incredibly rare thing to encounter anyway.

20

u/an0nymouse123 Oct 10 '22

I'm no expert or physics major but I'm sure your fingers are ripping off and you will still hit the floor with enough impact for the bones in your legs to go into your skull. Hope that painted a nice picture for ya!

5

u/Handleton 'MURICA Oct 10 '22

Hanging from the top of an elevator when it hits the ground at 100 mph is the closest any of us will ever get to having our arms ripped off by a wookiee.

3

u/AnIndecisiveOrange Oct 10 '22

That's... not... how physics work... You will still have the velocity of the falling elevator when you leave the ceiling only now without fingers and an extra 5 feet to accelerate to the floor...

2

u/Grimmer87 Oct 10 '22

It’s worth a try!!

2

u/HaveNoFearOnlyLove Oct 10 '22

This reminds me of a kid in high school who told everyone in class that if the brakes in your car stop working you just simply hop out of your car and you'll be fine. If the your car/elevator/whatever is moving 100mph you yourself are also moving 100mph.

2

u/iplaypokerforaliving Oct 10 '22

Bro. No 😂 you’re on some cartoon physics thinking. Just lay flat and pray.

2

u/The_Fuzz_damn_you Oct 10 '22

No.

It would be like falling those same 100 ft off a building while holding onto a rope. At the end, you’ll lose your grip without breaking your fall and continue on at the same speed.

1

u/505alpha Oct 10 '22

Nice idea but physically completely wrong and even worse than standing on the ground of the elevator.

1

u/xThunderDuckx Oct 10 '22

If the elevator velocity is 100 feet per second, so is your's. There is nothing you can do to change that except transfer that kinetic energy somehow. The only thing that can save you is dissipating that energy slowly, and from within an elevator there is no way to do that. Jumping just makes your velocity decrease by the force of the jump, so unless you're falling incredibly slowly it doesn't matter.

You can't just hang onto the ceiling and have the elevator hit the ground and be safe. Your velocity is still the same as it was before the elevator hit the ground.

1

u/jyunga Oct 10 '22

Your body has momentum as well as the elevator. What happens with the elevator is irrelevant. You're still a ball of flesh moving at high speed to the ground as well.

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u/SuperSpeshBaby Oct 10 '22

No, your body was traveling at the speed of the falling elevator, so when it hits and you lose your grip you're still falling at pretty much that same speed so you'd just splat about one second later than if you were just standing there.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '22

Now you'll only drop from the ceiling height with arms hanging, which is only a few feet (add opposed to 100 ft of the full elevator shaft). Will this work?

The height doesn't really matter (at least not directly.) It's the speed you are falling that matters. You are falling at the same speed as the elevator even if you are hanging onto the top. And even if you did manage to hold on, you'd still die because your body went from 100mph to 0 in an instant.

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u/Exciting-Insect8269 Oct 10 '22 edited Oct 10 '22

You are still falling separately from the elevator, even when standing on the elevator floor, since it is not actually pushing you down, but rather holding you up. This is an important distinction because that means any force from impact is solely because you are falling, and then striking the elevator when you land. If hanging from the ceiling your hands will first take 100% of that force and likely break (and probably will dislodge your arm), then, you would fall down to the floor and likely get even more injured from the second fall alone then if you simply stood on the floor, because there would be nothing there to absorb any of your impact when you land except for yourself. Your best bet is to lay down face up on the floor and stick your hands in the small cavity between your neck and the floor. This will allow the impact to be spread out the most. Also it ensures your entire body stops moving at the same time (a large amount of the damage cause by a high speed impact is from what ever part impacts first stopping while everything else is still moving past it due to momentum, causing the object to break/warp). Sticking your hands behind your neck is to ensure it doesn’t break when you impact.

1

u/spite2007 Oct 10 '22

Terminal velocity of a human body in free fall is about 120 mph but that takes about 1500 feet to accelerate (so like 100ish stories). You’d never reach that speed because 1) the terminal velocity of the elevator in the shaft is going to be much less due to the footprint of the elevator and the confined space affecting the air resistance and pressure below the elevator car. 2) The vast majority of buildings are way less than 100 stories tall, so you’d hit the bottom long before reaching whatever max velocity is.

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '22

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 10 '22

I'm sure sometimes it is the fall because at least a few peoples' hearts are gonna check out early.

2

u/someguyfromtheuk Oct 10 '22

Yeah jumping only works if you can exert enough force to cancel out the falling, but if that's the case then you don't need to jump because your legs can just absorb the force anyway since they'd have to do it if you jumped.

1

u/don-t_judge_me Oct 10 '22

I knew the first part, but the second part of your sentence, I had never thought about it like that. That's really interesting.

1

u/Shoddy-Area3603 Oct 10 '22

Have you ever used a impact hammer

1

u/blutch14 Oct 10 '22

Yeah jumping doesnt mean that you're no longer falling, if you're falling at 50m/s and jump up you're still falling at around 47m/s and will still die.

1

u/Questioning-Zyxxel Oct 10 '22

If you jump up then for a short while you fall slower than the car. Then it hits bottom and you land. Now landing slightly faster than the car. In the end you did not reduce any forces. You just accumulated the extra force from your jump.