# Which would frighten you MORE: Bungee Jumping or Sky Diving? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 5, 2009, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407 "2009-05-05T12:50:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/61 "2011-10-08T16:00:33Z")
If both your main and reserve chutes fail, then you’re at terminal velocity and it doesn’t matter how far you are from the ground. If the bungee breaks, it will be at the point where you’ve reached maximum deceleration and are closest to the ground\*. How high from the ground is that, typically? Enough to hit terminal velocity? - Just in case you don’t follow me, I mean the point where the bungee is the most stretched out. I wouldn’t expect it to break when slack and you’re still in free fall.\*\* \*\* And in fact, do you reach free fall? I saw some bungee jumping (commercial) just this week off the Macau Tower, and it looked like there was some other restraint in place that limited the descent speed. I didn’t pay attention when in the tower, but when I saw a jump from outside, it looked like the jumper was restrained somehow and not accelerating. I guess I have a reason to go back to Macau and pay closer attention. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/62 "2011-10-08T16:53:13Z")
The danger in bungee jumping isn’t _just_ that the bungee might break - on the rebound you could wind up hitting whatever the bungee is anchored to, or objects nearby. People have been killed or suffered devastating injuries from hitting the underside of a bridge or bungee jump platform. Obviously, choosing one’s bungee site with care can help prevent these sorts of accidents, but it’s a possibility many aren’t aware of. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/63 "2011-10-09T00:22:08Z")
I’ve done both, bungee jumping was WAY scarier. Not sure I would do it again. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/64 "2011-10-09T18:05:36Z")
I used to skydive but had to stop when I injured my knee while skiing. My husband has bungee jumped but I am terrified of the idea. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/65 "2011-10-10T14:32:42Z")
> [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](#): > > I have a terrible fear of heights, and while I did go skydiving once, there is no freaking way I could ever bungie jump. In sky diving, you are so high that there is an unreality to it. Your brain is not evolved to process a height of 2-1/2 miles, so it didn’t for me generate the same response. (Which isn’t to say I wasn’t scared shitless immediately before exiting the plane, but I was able to jump.) But lower heights are for me paradoxically much more frightening–I could never ever jump off of a 150 foot bridge. I can’t even stand next to the railing at the local mall looking from the fourth floor down to the ground level, and I have to fight down the vicarious panic when my daughter goes and presses her nose against the glass. couldn’t have said it better myself. altho i’ve never bungeed i have stepped out of a perfectly good airplane. once. 😃 i’m not planning on repeating the experience, but it’s true that the brain can’t process how high off the ground you are at 10,000 or so feet. i once looked down at the ground from the observation deck of the sears tower in chicago. i darn near threw up on my shoes! ---
**Author:** ![Jbone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@Jbone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jbone)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/66 "2011-10-10T17:00:39Z")
Bungee jumping would be worse for me. I think there would be an initial shock for both, but with sky diving the whole process takes longer and you can get used to it by the time you’re near the ground. With bungee jumping I’d freak out seeing myself approaching the ground at that speed over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/67 "2011-10-10T17:19:12Z")
I’ve got this middle ear thing so that I can’t handle abrupt changes in velocity. Roller coaster rides will leave me prostrate with motion sickness. Put me on a carnival ride and I’ll spill any state secret I might possess just to be on solid ground again. I’m guessing that bungee jumping is the very epitome of the kind of motion that would cause this. So while I’ve also got a fear of falling that would preclude any voluntary attempt at sky diving, I’m pretty sure that it would leave me at least ambulatory afterwards, while bungee jumping would leave me wishing for death. There’s also that whole jumping head first thing for bungee-jumping. Nothing in evolution has ever said that leaping from high places face first is a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407/68 "2011-10-10T17:55:23Z")
Bungee Jumping seems worse to me: DOOOOOWN…UUUUP…Dooown…Uup…down Also, I’m the guy they’d find dead at the end of a bungee cord because he found himself hanging upside down, motionless, 75 feet from the bridge deck and 75 feet from the canyon floor, and couldn’t figure out what to do next. At least with a parachute you walk off and climb back into the car when the show’s over. What’s a bungee jumper do? Gotta climb up 75 feet of stretchy rope? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-frighten-you-more-bungee-jumping-or-sky-diving/495407.md?page=3)