In a falling elevator, could you save yourself by jumping up at the last minute?
I’m an 8th grade Science Teacher and every year a student will ask the above question and I explain you would still end up DEAD DEAD DEAD (plus I throw in a little math.)
My question is have you ever seen the above demonstrated using eggs and springs?
I want to make a device to illustrate that you turn into “chunky salsa” with or without a jump at the last moment.
I need some help on how to make this device. I think there would have to be a trigger near the bottom plus….?
Any suggestions?
Have you ever seen this demonstrated?
Thanks, Dave
Just a quick aside: I, personally, wouldn’t listen to his advice. I’ve met Mr. Nye, and I found him to be an enormous jerk in real life. I was surprised, too.
I’m an electrical engineer, which biases me towards an electrical rather than a mechanical solution, but I would probably use a solenoid to launch whatever it is you want to launch. The trigger would just be some electrical contacts that the falling elevator would hit on the way down, causing the solenoid to fire.
I guess a more mechanical solution would be to have a spring held in place by a stick of some sort. Something small sticking out from the side of the elevator shaft could be used to push or pull the stick out of the way, making the spring release.
Either method should be fairly simple to construct and would allow a variable height before triggering by simply moving the trigger mechanism up or down on the shaft.
Well, if you could generate enough force to push yourself off the floor with a velocity exaclty counter to the downard falling velocity just before impact, you’d be alive and well. Assuming, of course, that the disintegrating elevator didn’t kill you after the crash, or you didn’t send yourself crashing into the cieling of the elevator. The problem is you wouldn’t be able to generate that much force yourself. If you rig up springs for an egg, it is possible that the springs could generate enough force to net out a zero velocity.
Thanks to all, as you can see I’m new to the board.
I like the idea of Mythbusters doing a show on this topic.
I also Meet Mr. Nye and was quite disappointed. I will check out his and Beckman’s site to see if they can help with construction ideas.
engineer_comp_geek I will look into solenoids to see if I can use one???
Imagine an elevator shaped compartment moving sideways at 70 mph, which suddenly slams into a brick wall. Ask your students if they think they could escape serious injury by, an instant before the crash, running as fast as they can in the opposite direction.
And yes you can fall a certain distance in an elevator cage without an injury but it is sustantially less than several floors. You can run the experiments if you like, I’ll watch and call the medics.
Really all your students need to do is consider how high they can jump. Ignoring friction, the take off speed you need to jump a certain height is precisely equivalent to the speed you will hit the ground at, if you fall from that certain height.
A person can only really jump maybe 2-3 feet in the air, at the most. So all you are effectively doing by jumping in a falling elevator is decreasing the velocity at which you hit by the equivalent of the elevator falling 2-3 feet less than it actually fell. Which is very unlikely to be significant.
Look at it this way - if the elevator were falling at 70mph, and at the exact instant you could jump up in the air at a velocity of 10 mph, you would hit the ground at 60 mph.
My recommendation - get someone to lie down, and you lie on top them and use them for an airbag.
Something I’ve always wondered, though, is what would be the best way to improve your odds of survival in a falling elevator. Lying flat on the floor to distribute your mass over as great an area as possible? Standing up so that your breaking legs and hipe absorb energy before your gooey bits have to stop?
I think the most likely cause of death from an impact like this would be having your heart vessels ripped off, and having some ‘blood sac’ type organs like the spleen rupture.
Maybe kneeling would be the best position - lots of structure to absorb damage, with the legs perpendicular to the body so they don’t get driven into the torso?
The problem is you wouldn’t be able to generate that much force yourself. If you rig up springs for an egg, it is possible that the springs could generate enough force to net out a zero velocity.