Suppose you want to survive, whats the best position to fall with?
Cannonball?
Straight body?
Land knees first?
I suppose avoiding getting a major head injury would be the fore most concern, but Im not sure how you’d avoid it…
Make it 1 or 1.5 stories and you might survive. Anything more is certain death.
At that height, I’m pretty sure you’re dead no matter what you do.
According to the Suicide FAQ, at 6 stories, the chance of death is about 90%.
Ok, change that to 5 stories. :smack:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index.asp?id=43941
according to the book of records this woman fell 30,000 feet! Obviously she reached terminal velocity well before then…
I remember hearing about a 6 point ( knees, elbows and hands?) stance which is supposed to possibly allow you to survive a terminal velocity fall. Of course all your limbs would be broken. Anyone remember such a thing?
There is a thing called the parachutist’s five point landing, which you might try to emulate.
From here: http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/carkeet.html
I know it’s worked at least once. Many years ago I read about a guy who had a chute problem while skydiving. He tried the above technique and managed to survive. He later said something to the effect of “I broke all five points so I figure I did it right.”
I have nothing to add to this thread except to say that jumping from a 10-storey building, your free-fall time would be just a few seconds (I’m too lazy to work it out precisely); you won’t have time to alter your position as you fall, perhaps not even enough time to cancel out any rotation you picked up as you jumped off.
I supposed it was a planned jump (burning building or of the like) you could do it.
Worth a try anyway 
Yes, an experienced high-diver would probably be able to make sure he/she landed in the desired orientation (if ‘desired’ is at all the right word to use here). I’m pretty sure there was a news story a while back about a diver who survived a leap from a burning hotel, partly because of his expertise (although not from the tenth floor, I think).
You first.
Also, what would be the best way if your over some mass of water?
Just try and dive in? I guess thats kind of obvious, but maybe im missing somehting :smack:
I’d say with a pretty high degree of certainty that I could jump out of a 2nd story window without dying.
I believe the Navy teaches some specific techniques for evacuating large ships. Diving is definitely not the best way. I believe they teach feet first, ankles crossed to keep your legs from separating, arms crossed and hands clasped on shoulders to keep them tight to the body. Or something like that. From any large height, hitting the water will be a substantial impact so there is danger in getting stray limbs dislocated, etc. A squidy will be along shortly to clear up the details.
IANASquid, but I’ve got several friends who are and were squiddies. Yes, the Naval Academy instructs all of their cadets in the 10-meter “dive” to simulate evacuating from a carrier deck. You enter feet first, toes pointed, ankles crossed. Arms cross the chest, binding the breasts close for women; the crossed arms form a “windshield” for the head, preventing water from shooting straight up the nose. To prevents an involuntary high-speed enema, men are advised to clench their buttocks; women are advised to also clench their thighs. The USNA usually has at least one serious injury (broken or sprained limb, serious skin bruising, etc.) in each class when a cadet over- or under-rotates, or fails to maintain the position. I am good friends with two Naval officers who passed the test; each said that it was a good experience they’d never want to repeat.
I am a former squid and we were taught a different posture. body pretty much the same with legs together and ankles crossed but one hand over your face and one over your 'nads. Glad I never had to jump off a flight deck. That’s a shade more than 20 meters on a modern carrier.
The best position is hands folded in front of the chest, and feet first. Your knees should be bent, with your feet behind you, sort of like a mid-air kneel. Your eyes should be closed, and keep your chin raised so that your face is pointing upwards.
Say the following as you fall:
“Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee and I detest all my sins, because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell. But most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.”
You have less than three seconds. Talk fast.
Regards,
Shodan
You sure about that Shodan? It seems like having your knees take the brunt of the impact would be a bad idea.
Also, the woman who survived the fall without a parachute was found “with the legs sticking out of the fuselage” which makes me think she was with the plane and not falling on her own. For those who mention parachutists who survive without the chute opening, generally they have what is known as a streamer, their chute is out in the air but due to some sort of malfunction is not open and is just acting like a streamer behind them. Though it is not what you want, it does have a good bit of drag and therefore your terminal velocity is much lower. I have never heard of someone falling at terminal velocity without dying without something slowing them down.
Would it make sense to spread-eagle as you fall, to get your terminal velocity as slow as possible, and then adopt a break-everything-but-your-skull posture just before you hit? Of course, for a relatively short fall you might not have time for that.
The site I linked to above has a whole section of them. Click on “free fallers” at the top, or just click this link: The Free Fall Research Page: Free Fallers
There are three people mentioned on that page. All were basically shot out of their plane during WWII. One was blown out of his plane before he could grab his chute. One had his plane catch on fire and his chute went up in flames, and he chose to jump out rather than ride the burning wreckage to the ground. It doesn’t give details about how the third ended up outside of his plane without a chute, other than the fact that his bomber was attacked by a fighter. The falling distance was at least 18,000 feet in all 3 cases.
I’m trying to find the cite for this, but I remember reading on more than one occasion of a Russian pilot during WWII that bailed out from over 30,000 ft. His chute failed to deploy at all, IIRC, and he survived by laning on the side of a very steep, snow-covered mountain. Instead of pancaking in, he slid down the side of the mountain several hundred meters. The snow and branches cushioned his decelleration. He broke just about everything, but survived.
Some data. 