# save yourself from the falling elevator
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 31, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696 "2006-07-31T12:39:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rhiannon777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhiannon777)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/1 "2006-07-31T12:39:36Z")
We all know (thanks to the SD) that you can’t save yourself by jumping at the last second if you are in a falling elevator. But could you save yourself by jumping up and grabbing onto something attached to the ceiling as soon as the elevator started to fall, then hanging on until after impact? Why or why not?
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### Author:  [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/2 "2006-07-31T13:00:25Z")
Hmm… lessee…
Elevators aren’t known for their cathedral-like 19th Century high ceilings, and your feet might only be a foor or two off the floor. The crashed elevator would probably be significantly less tall than it was before, so you’d hit the floor anyway before your grip was inevitably (and brutally quickly) broken by the sudden deceleration. So you’d not only be dead, but you’d probably be dead and also have sprained fingers.
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/3 "2006-07-31T13:00:58Z")
The same force that will squish you and not let you save yourself by jumping in the air will quite easily make sure you will not be able to hang on when it finally hits the bottom.
It’s not that easy to hang by your arms. Now imagine you weigh five times as much.
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### Author:  [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/4 "2006-07-31T13:02:39Z")
> [@rhiannon777](#):
>
> We all know (thanks to the SD) that you can’t save yourself by jumping at the last second if you are in a falling elevator. But could you save yourself by jumping up and grabbing onto something attached to the ceiling as soon as the elevator started to fall, then hanging on until after impact? Why or why not?
Most likely not becuase the force necessary to hang onto the bar would be far greater than any human could muster. You would have no chance at holding onto the bar, and simply would go splat on the floor. The best position in a falling elevator is bent over with your head between your legs kissing your ass good-bye.
Luckily elevators today (and forever for that matter) have a fail safe system. If the tension in the cable holding up the elevator is not there brakes clamp down on the guides preventing the elevator from moving.
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### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/5 "2006-07-31T13:05:52Z")
I beleive the best recourse in a free falling elevator is to lay down on the elevator floor.
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### Author:  [@Shai\_tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shai_tan)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/6 "2006-07-31T13:10:59Z")
If you’re falling fast enough to be killed while standing on the floor of the elevator, you’re falling fast enough to be ripped lose from whatever you were holding on to on the ceiling. Then you would impact the floor with the same result. Even if you managed (highly unlikely) to keep a grip with your hands, I don’t know if your arms would actually be ripped off but they would certainly be pulled from their sockets.
I recall reading of a sea-faring punishment where the guilty party’s limbs were tied to the yard arm and he was thrown from that height. I believe the first drop usually resulted in dislocated limbs the second (or third) in the limbs being torn from the body. How good’s your grip?
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### Author:  [@myrnajean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myrnajean)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/7 "2006-07-31T13:14:56Z")
> [@Meeko](#):
>
> I beleive the best recourse in a free falling elevator is to lay down on the elevator floor.
Unless when the elevator hits bottom, the broken cable (also on its way down) slices through the elevator and promptly cuts you in half… :eek:
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### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/8 "2006-07-31T13:23:30Z")
> [@Meeko](#):
>
> I beleive the best recourse in a free falling elevator is to lay down on the elevator floor.
I just now remembred where I read it.
[http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst\_case\_scenario/1289266.html](http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenario/1289266.html)
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### Author:  [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/9 "2006-07-31T13:51:32Z")
> [@Meeko](#):
>
> I just now remembred where I read it.
>
> [http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst\_case\_scenario/1289266.html](http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/worst_case_scenario/1289266.html)
Hmm, the last paragraph mentions the jumping bit, but oddly gives the wrong reason why it doesn’t work.
I agree with lying down as your best option, but would submit that if you’re truly in free-fall, lying down would be impossible. (I realize that a falling elevator would not be freely falling due to contact with the walls of the elevator shaft)
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/10 "2006-07-31T14:51:33Z")
> [@flex727](#):
>
> Hmm, the last paragraph mentions the jumping bit, but oddly gives the wrong reason why it doesn’t work.
To wit:
> [@Popular Mechanics](#):
>
> Jumping just before the elevator hits the bottom is not a viable alternative. The chances that you will time your jump exactly right are infinitely small.
This is what happens when people learn physics from Bugs Bunny cartoons. :rolleyes:
> [@treis](#):
>
> Luckily elevators today (and forever for that matter) have a fail safe system. If the tension in the cable holding up the elevator is not there brakes clamp down on the guides preventing the elevator from moving.
[Usually](http://www.elevator-expert.com/elevator.htm). [Almost always](http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-17/115090597510110.xml&coll=3). [Generally](http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30815F73D580C768EDDA80894D8404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fE%2fElevators%20and%20Escalators).
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/11 "2006-07-31T15:23:39Z")
Right. A few months ago, an elevator in Manhattan actually fell. People inside the building thought a bomb had gone off, the shock from impact was so big.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/12 "2006-07-31T15:43:09Z")
\*Mythbusters \* explored the idea of jumping up at the moment before the elevator hits bottom about two years ago.
Even if you could know when to jump, they showed that you’d be pretty well mashed. Their test elevator was completely destroyed, and that was a fall of just six or so stories. And there’s the trick - you’re in a box with solid walls, so you have no visual cue of when to try jumping.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/13 "2006-07-31T16:41:09Z")
> [@Meeko](#):
>
> I beleive the best recourse in a free falling elevator is to lay down on the elevator floor.
Wouldn’t it be better to remain standing, so your legs can act as shock absorbers? OK, maybe “crumple zone” would be a more apt description, but it should reduce stress to more vital organs.
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### Author:  [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/14 "2006-07-31T21:31:05Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> Wouldn’t it be better to remain standing, so your legs can act as shock absorbers? OK, maybe “crumple zone” would be a more apt description, but it should reduce stress to more vital organs.
Would standing on your head help?
Makes NO difference. IF the fail-safe cage arrest system fails you’ll be watchting the grass roots grow for the underside.
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/15 "2006-07-31T21:50:55Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#):
>
> \*Mythbusters \* explored the idea of jumping up at the moment before the elevator hits bottom about two years ago.
>
> Even if you could know when to jump, they showed that you’d be pretty well mashed. Their test elevator was completely destroyed, and that was a fall of just six or so stories. And there’s the trick - you’re in a box with solid walls, so you have no visual cue of when to try jumping.
Bill Nye also busted this one, but before he got his own show. On _Almost Live_ he rigged up an egg in a tiny elevator shaft to jump up as the little elevator fell. Buster fared better.
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### Author:  [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/16 "2006-07-31T23:32:24Z")
I think that you could spread your legs, bend forward as far as you can, and kiss your ass goodbye.
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### Author:  [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/17 "2006-08-01T00:40:01Z")
To counteract your downward momentum, you would need to be strong enough that you could jump approximately as high as the starting point of the elevator’s fall. If you could do this, and you could time it just perfectly, and the elevator did not collapse on impact, you could theoretically optimize your jump such that you just exactly counteract your downward momentum and survive.
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### Author:  [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2006, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/18 "2006-08-01T00:53:09Z")
But if you were strong enough to jump as high as the starting point of the fall, you would probably be built tough enough to survive the fall from that height in the first place. So no need to jump just before the car hits the bottom; just brace yourself like you would for one of your normal 6-story-jump landings.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/19 "2006-08-01T01:18:48Z")
> [@spingears](#):
>
> Makes NO difference. IF the fail-safe cage arrest system fails you’ll be watchting the grass roots grow for the underside.
I don’t buy that. A failure is not always fatal. It depends on how far up you are, _how_ the cage arrest fails (there is such thing as a partial failure), how well the shaft is ventilated, what’s at the bottom (maybe a huge pile of the severed cable?), etc.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/save-yourself-from-the-falling-elevator/366696/20 "2006-08-01T01:47:37Z")
I remember a physics test question where we had to determine the parameters of a spring that would allow an elevator car of a certain weight to decelerate slow enough to allow the passengers to survive. At the time I remembe thinking, “I wonder why they don’t do that?” Later it occured to me that it would be impractical. Not only would you have to build teh big-ass spring, but it would be in the way of the mechanicals, and you’d have to design the elevator car itself to withstand a high-G deceleration, etc. Much simpler to design brakes.
> [@scr4](#):
>
> I don’t buy that. A failure is not always fatal. It depends on how far up you are, how the cage arrest fails (there is such thing as a partial failure), how well the shaft is ventilated, what’s at the bottom (maybe a huge pile of the severed cable?), etc.
If I recall correctly, the big pile of cable at the bottom was speculated as the cause of the survival of a woman who free-fell in an elevator back in WWII when a B-25 hit the Empire State Building.
(after Googling…) From [this link:](http://www.elevator-world.com/magazine/archive01/9603-002.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> As the plane hit, Oliver, an elevator operator, was blown out of her post on the 80th floor and badly burned. After receiving first aid, she was put in another car to go down to an ambulance. As the elevator doors closed, rescue workers heard what sounded like a gunshot but what was, in fact, the snapping of elevator cables weakened by the crash. The car with Oliver inside, now at the 75th floor, plunged to the sub-basement, a fall of over 1,000 feet. Rescuers had to cut a hole in the car to get to the badly injured elevator operator.
>
> Despite a harrowing experience, Oliver survived, due in large part to the elevator safety devices which served their function, though perhaps not as envisioned. The elevator car safety could not set because the governor cable had been severed by the plane’s impact. Therefore, other factors contributed to slowing the elevator and ‘cushioning’ its fall. As the elevator fell, the compensating cables, hanging from beneath the car, piled up in the pit and acted as a coiled spring, slowing the elevator. Also, the hatchway was of a ‘high-pressure’ design, with minimum clearance around the car. In such a small space, the air was compressed under the falling elevator. With such a tight fit of the car in the hatchway, the trapped air created an air cushion in the lower portion of the shaft – thereby further slowing the elevator car and allowing its occupant to survive.
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