Person falls 40 feet into a 10' deep pool filled with set jello or water. Which is safer?

Assume the person is 200 lbs and jumps off a 40 foot ledge into 10 foot deep swimming pool filed with water or alternatively, a pool filled with fully set Jello gelatin at normal dessert consistency.

Which is more or less dangerous for the falling person? Will the Jello being set impact protect him more or less overall than the less viscous water?

Need answer fast?

Surfacing through multiple feet of jello doesn’t sound like an easy task.

What flavor?

Surely teh water is “softer” and so is going to absorb the impact better. People dive from a height into water all the time without ill effects.

Homer out of it.

Does it have to be Jello brand or can I use generic?

I don’t know about the impact itself, but I highly doubt drowning is an issue if you use Jello[sup][sup]TM[/sup][/sup] brand gelatin.

Yes but we’re only talking 10 feet to take the impact. In diving into water from 40 feet I’m guessing you’re going to go deeper than 10 feet down if you weigh 200 lbs.

Belly flop I would say water is safer, feet first or head first I would have to say jello.

Depends on how you land and enter. Of course, I wouldn’t want to be the guy to bellyflop from that height.

Obligatory Homestar Runner link.

But it’s only 10’ deep.

If, rather than 10’ you made it 11 wouldn’t that make it deeper? like, 1 deeper?

Why don’t you just make ten deeper and make ten be the top number and make that a little deeper?

Actually, water is quite hard - you can displace it, but unlike jello, you can’t compress it.

The world record for High Diving is 177 feet., there have been higher dives, but with injury.

With a parachute, well 400,000 km is the record. :smiley:

Not pineapple.

Not the definition of “hard,” but it’s true that water is essentially incompressible. But what makes you think you can compress Jell-O? It’s still water in its original volume, with just some dissolved sugar and gelatin.

Suffocation may be a problem.

This sounds like an excellent question to send to the Mythbusters!

Or The Cosby Mysteries.