Have you ever been saved at the last minute?
While these days, Aggy, I am known as a carefree bunny with a smile between her whiskers and a song in her heart, there was a time when things were less happy-go-lucky and the black dog plagued my every waking moment. In the first blush of youth, when I was still doing the burlesque (or 'Furlesque' as it was, in my case, billed) I made the acquaintance of a young ne'er-do-well buck rabbit called Johnny 'Paws for Thought' Hopkins. One night he came to the club with his entourage and asked me (little me!) over to share a carrot or two. It was love at first bite for me, Aggy, and for the next six weeks we enjoyed the most riotous period of wild romanticism of my entire life. Even though, in my heart, I knew Johnny was no good I forgave him everything with just one flash of his snow-white bobtail and a kick of his powerful hind-legs. I loved him so much. Around this time, I had a friend at the club (Fluffy) who'd fallen on hard times. Alone and vulnerable she'd been ensnared into a seedy world of carrot cake and vice. I tried to help her but the lure of cake was too strong and I watched the beautiful young doe fall apart before my very eyes. One evening after a show, I realised Fluffy hadn't been to work for three consecutive nights and called round to her basement. I knocked several times but, receiving no reply, I let myself in using the key she kept under the amaryllis. It was terrible, Aggy. There she lay before me in the hallway. Her stiff little body engorged on carrot cake to the point of death and there, by her furry corpse, was Johnny's calling card. Sickeningly, I realised he'd been supplying her the cake all along. Wracked with guilt and grief, I drank a bottle of gin and stowed away, crying, on a lorry delivering footballs for the exclusive use of Matt Le Tissier. I slept fitfully on the journey and felt so wretched the next day that I decided to end it all by hiding inside one of the balls and rolling myself to the feet of the eagle-beaked mercurial genius just before he kicked from the penalty spot. Imagine my surprise when my plans were scuppered by Forest's Mark Crossly. At the time, I was quite miffed as my suicidal plan had seemed flawless. However, now I am living a happy and debauched life of drunken promiscuity at the pub, I'm just so glad that I was saved at the last minute.
If you were in a falling elevator and you jumped at the last second - would you save yourself?
No, you would not. Consider the following, just as a really bad example. Let's say you were falling and increasing velocity by 1 foot per second (every second). So, you'd be traveling at 1 ft/s, then 2 ft/s then 3 ft/s then 4 ft/s. After you've fallen for several seconds, you have a good head of steam going. Now let's say you jump at the very end. You're traveling let's say 16 feet per second (if you fell from like the 2nd/3rd floor or so; like I said this is a really bad example so my numbers are probably a bit off from what would actually happen), and you jump with 2 feet per second of force. You still hit the floor with a net speed of 14 feet per second (since you only subtracted 2 feet per second from your total velocity) and pretty much get splattered or at least badly crushed... No, it's much better to put your feet and legs together (for reinforcement), bend your knees just slightly so you absorb impact a little better rather having your bones shattered (may still happene anyway if you're traveling really fast). Protect your head, and hope not to break too many other bones. It's the same way a parachuter tries to land. Feet together, rather than apart, and try to absorb the impact with slightly bent legs. If you take all the weight/velocity on only one leg, it'll basically shatter. You have a better chance with absorbing the impact evenly. Consider trying to snap 2-3 thick sticks at one time rather than just one. Harder to do, huh? And just hope that the elevator isn't crushed, ot the ceiling above you will slam into the floor at the same speed the floor did, and crush you in between ceiling and floor. But I think elevators are designed to absorb a nominal amount of impact without buckling. So, if it's a short fall, hopefully it wouldn't buckle and flatten you.
I'll just quote wiki how here. GovernorBut let's say all the cables did snap. Then the elevator's safeties would kick in. Safeties are braking systems on the elevator car that grab onto the rails running up and down the elevator shaft. Some safeties clamp the rails, while others drive a wedge into notches in the rails. Typically, safeties are activated by a mechanical speed governor.The governor is a pulley that rotates when the elevator moves. When the governor spins too fast, the centrifugal force activates thebraking system.At the BottomIf the safeties failed, you would be plummeting rapidly, but you wouldn't quite be in a free fall. Friction from the rails along the shaft and pressure from the air underneath the car would slow the car down considerably (you would feel lighter than normal though). On impact, the car would stop and you would keep going, slamming you into the floor.But two things would cushion the blow. First, the elevator car would compress the air at the bottom of the shaft as it fell, just as a piston compresses air in abicycle pump. The air pressure would slow the elevator car down. Second, most cable elevators have a built-in shock absorber at the bottom of the shaft -- typically a piston in an oil-filled cylinder. That would cushion the impact too.With all these features in place, you would have an excellent chance of surviving any elevator mishap.DON'T BOTHER JUMPINGYou sometimes hear that you should jump immediately before the elevator crashes, so you would be "floating" at the second of impact. Would it work? Nah. Even if you could perfectly time such a leap, it wouldn't help. Let's say you and the elevator are falling at 100 mph. When you jump up in the elevator, you would still be going about 100 mph. You would hit the ground at 100 mph, just like the elevator. That's gonna hurt!Your best bet would be to lie flat on the floor. This would stabilize you and spread out the force of the impact -- so that no single part of your body would take the brunt of the blow. But, it's still gonna hurt
Maybe I would do it as a reflex, but then I do not choose do die for them.Hope I never will get the choise of either them or me is going to take a bullet, and time to think about it. Honestly I don't know what I have done in such a case. But I know for sure, either ways I would have a lot of troubles with my feelings afterwards.And there I read your comment under your question. ;-) And the answer is still, I don't know. It would completely depend on that special moment, what happend right before. If I let my loved one be killed, I will suffer. If I got killed, my loved one will suffer. I think this is why suicide people take the whole family with them into death. They can't find a answer for what is right or wrong. Which is the best, that you kill yourself and the family suffer for years or that you all die and none of you suffer. Terrible situation and thoughts.So, if you just have to take a decition, if there is just the two of you, no children to ble let alone, maybe the best is to get killed both of you. One bullet for the loved one, and if you can't get the hand on the trigger to give the nest to yourself, arrange a suicide before you need to face the world.Maybe! I don't know, but I for sure are going to read rest of the answers.All the best.Edit! I misunderstood the question a bit. Maybe due to watching too many crime series. I thougt there were a person with a gun giving me a choice of either me or my loved ones. If in a normal situation I would see a bullet (or something else) treathening my loved one to death, I think my reflexion will take care of my choices. And now and then I don't quite understand neither my body nor my brain, so answer remains, I dont know. Any thing more you want my answer for? :-)
If in a falling elevator, is it possible to jump at the last second to lessen the impact?
Well, enough people have answered the question you asked, so I thought I'd answer your next one and save you the five points for having to ask it: Is it safe to take elevators? how likely are they to fail catastrophically and allow me to fall many stories to my death...? Modern elevators contain a device which works automatically. It is based on a speed governor. As the elevator begins to fall faster than it is designed to do (and remember, most of them travel fairly slowly, for comfort-- nobody likes to get nauseous in the elevator) a wheel spins faster than normal. This is a simple mechanical device and not dependent on electricity. The latching part of the device is therefore flung outward by centripetal acceleration (look it up!) and presses against the walls of the elevator shaft. (I believe there is even a sort of ratcheting mechanism, so that the elevator is locked in place and cannot be lowered any further without first being raised up to the next floor.) So the safety mechanism is deliberately made redundant and as fool proof as possible. Of course, in event of fire, the power is shut off and the elevators should not be used. Take the stairs, do not run, follow the directions of the fire marshalls and you will be fine.
Whats the highest you have ever jumped?
WELL DONE YOU!!!! Takes a bit of courage doesn't it? :-)) Sounds like a great wee pony you've got. Hope you have many more fun times with him. What a feeling for you. Anyway, in answer to your question, the highest I've jumped is a 6'1" wall (show-jumping not stone ;-) ). I regularly jumped 5'9" with a spread of 8' when competing! The horse I rode was a 16.2hh ¾TB x ¼ Irish Hunter chestnut gelding who LOVED to jump and went on to be an International Showjumper, finally going to live in America after a stint in Germany. I miss him terribly. I was lucky enough to have bought him when he was just 4 months old and his breeder allowed me to take his Dam (retiring) with me for a couple of years. (If she hadn't, let me do that, she wouldn't have let the foal away earlier than a yearling in case you're wondering).Obviously I was handling him every day and working with him until he could be backed as a 3½ y. o. I used to excercise the mare in the indoor school (just lungeing but she didn't need the lunge-rein!) and the foal just used to follow in behind her learning all the voice commands and trotting over ground poles which was all great for later. Because of our closeness, he did everything I ever asked of him. HE went on to jump higher, it was ME who bottled out!!!! LOL I couldn't do it now though! Bones too old to take the impact now haha Sounds like you're having great fun with your pony, long may the great partnership last. Good luck with the jumping!
If a lift was falling could you save yourself by jumping at the last second?
it is the perfect time for exercising the "2d form vector mathematics" If the carry is falling at (operating example) 32'/2d (downwards) then you quite will die even as it hits the bottom of the shaft. in case you bounce purely earlier impact you'll achive a vertical speed (upwards) of about 2'/2d, if you're fortunate. bear in mind that you're already descending at 32'/2d. you need to now subtract your upward speed from that of the carry to grant your honestly speed on the time once you hit the bottom of the shaft. this promises you with a information superhighway speed of 30'/2d (downwards). you'd be impossible to live to inform the tale a ability at that %. If by utilising some danger you cope with to achive an upward velcolity of 32'/2d purely because the floor of the carry reaches the bottom your information superhighway speed will be 0. regrettably, the roof of the carry will nevertheless be travelling downwards at 32'/2d so it is nevertheless "strawberry jam" time. Sorry.
Can you survive a plane crash if you jump out at the last second?
10 feet away from the ground is not far at all. Say you did jump on the ground from the plane, you would land safely onto the ground maybe with a few bumps and bruises. BUT, you'd have to run abnormally fast away from the plane because once it hits the ground its gonna explode and you might as well have stayed on the plane because you wouldn't survive, not from 10 feet away from the ground. You could probably survive 10 feet from the water.
Let's say each floor is 3 m tall. That would make your total energy on impact (without jumping) E=mgh=(~70kg)(9.8m/s^2)(15m)=10.29KJNow, let's say you're the best person in the world at jumping. And you've surpassed the world reccord being able to jump 2.5 m. That would be a net energy of:E=(~70kg)(9.8m/s^2)(2.5m)= 1.71kJIf you were able to substract all that energy from your fall you'd still have a total energy of 8.575kJ which would translate to a speed of:E=1/2mv^2v=(2E/M)^.5=(2*8575/70)^.5= 15.65 m/s = 56.3 km/hwhich you would probably be able to survive depending on where you land and how you land. But I can tell you for sure that it will hurt and at least you'll end up with a lot of broken bones, and that's if you're really really lucky.