1 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: Hey, you Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My 2 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:10,560 Speaker 1: name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 3 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: Time for a Vault episode. This episode originally aired on 4 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: August nineteen, and it was called How to Survive a 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:20,440 Speaker 1: Great Fall, where we became suddenly obsessed with the question 6 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,440 Speaker 1: of what happens if you fall from like airplane altitude? 7 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,479 Speaker 1: That's right. Uh this one, this one is a really 8 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: fun one gets into, you know, the physics and also 9 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:33,160 Speaker 1: some just amazing stories of human survival. Totally. Let's skydive 10 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:38,479 Speaker 1: right in. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a 11 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, you, 12 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:50,199 Speaker 1: welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 13 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:53,440 Speaker 1: Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And Robert, I know 14 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 1: you've got a love for older aircraft, so I wanted 15 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:59,639 Speaker 1: to start off talking today about an aircraft. I think 16 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:02,040 Speaker 1: I know you've mentioned it before. I think you've got 17 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 1: a spot in your heart for it. It's the B 18 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: seventeen Flying Fortress. Oh of course. Yeah. So this was 19 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:11,760 Speaker 1: a gigantic four engine heavy bomber developed by Boeing that 20 00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,240 Speaker 1: was used by the United States in World War Two, 21 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:18,959 Speaker 1: primarily for long range, high altitude bombing raids against Germany 22 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:22,040 Speaker 1: and Nazi occupied targets in Europe, and to a lesser 23 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: extent it was used some in the Pacific theater. Oh. 24 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:26,200 Speaker 1: And I guess, just to clarify what I said a 25 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: minute ago, I mean when I say you've got a 26 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: spot in your heart for this, I don't mean like 27 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 1: you love war and bombing. And I mean that like 28 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: I know that you have a kind of love for 29 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: the aesthetics of airplane design. Yeah. I mean my my 30 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,120 Speaker 1: dad was a War War two buff and he and 31 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 1: more importantly he was he was really into creating, to 32 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: working on scale model kits, yeah, and mostly War War 33 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: two scale models. And so the B seventeen uh was 34 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 1: certainly a plane that was one of his favorites. And 35 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: you know, he was always telling me about it, and 36 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,680 Speaker 1: he had like a prized model of it, like probably 37 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:02,440 Speaker 1: like you know, his the masterpiece of his his scale 38 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 1: modeling time. Uh and uh And say, I grew up 39 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: amid these depictions of the B seventeen. I mean, it's 40 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:12,040 Speaker 1: it's a very iconic plane. Um. And it's the third 41 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:14,639 Speaker 1: most produced bomber of all time. It was an icon 42 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:18,120 Speaker 1: of US air superiority and uh, and it's a highly 43 00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: successful design and they were used for various post war 44 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: purposes as well. And there's actually there's somewhere in the 45 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,600 Speaker 1: neighborhood of like I want to say, ten B seventeens 46 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: that are actually still airworthy. Oh yeah, I think I 47 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 1: was reading that there are like some that are actually 48 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: still in flight somewhere. Well, they're kept, you know, in 49 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 1: in an air worthy condition. And it's harder to keep 50 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,800 Speaker 1: an older plane like this in air worthy condition. But 51 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: but with a plane that where the design is solid 52 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,400 Speaker 1: and it has this iconic status in uh, you know, 53 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:50,160 Speaker 1: in American aviation history, you're going to to to to 54 00:02:50,360 --> 00:02:52,240 Speaker 1: keep those going as long as you can. And even 55 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: the ones that aren't air worthy, there are a number 56 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:59,639 Speaker 1: of just fantastically restored um B seventeens in museums a 57 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:03,080 Speaker 1: v A museums around the world. Yeah. Uh. And it's 58 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:05,600 Speaker 1: so it was a strategically important aircraft, right, I mean, 59 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:08,720 Speaker 1: so it was this heavily armored aircraft that was played 60 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,800 Speaker 1: a huge role in in Allied victory in Europe, and 61 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: it was it was sort of famous for like taking 62 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 1: a beating in the course of its mission before returning 63 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: to base intact and landing with lots of visible combat damage. Right, 64 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:23,680 Speaker 1: And I guess this is tied up in the idea 65 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,560 Speaker 1: of that that it's called the flying fortress. Yeah, And 66 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: then again we don't want to romanticize the this weapon 67 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: of war too much. It was used to kill a 68 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: lot of people, of course, and a lot of people 69 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 1: died flying them. But just from a purely designed standpoint, 70 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 1: it is fascinating because there they were. They really was 71 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,800 Speaker 1: this flying fortress. It's this idea that you you have this, 72 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,280 Speaker 1: this vessel, this uh, this this airplane you're sitting up 73 00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: into the sky, sitting it into into into enemy territory 74 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 1: to rain bombs down on them, and then you want 75 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: to have it protected. So of course, the main thing 76 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:00,600 Speaker 1: you can do is have if you have fighter planes 77 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: to accompany it, faster, subtle uh death machines that can 78 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,440 Speaker 1: fly about and pick off things that are trying to 79 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: interfere with the bombing fleet. But on top of that, 80 00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:15,240 Speaker 1: you need to have some guns on that flying fortress 81 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 1: on your bomber to protect it. But since the bomber 82 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: itself is not going to be like super maneuverable, especially 83 00:04:22,600 --> 00:04:25,159 Speaker 1: compared to fighters that are coming up to intercept it. 84 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: What you need to do is you need to have 85 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: all your directions covered. You have some machine guns poking 86 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: out the front, you have tailgunner in the back, you 87 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: have a turret on the top, uh, side gunners, etcetera. 88 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 1: But one of the defense features of the B seventeen 89 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:42,720 Speaker 1: what you're getting to is now famous, or maybe more 90 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:46,880 Speaker 1: importantly infamous. It's the ball turret that the lower turret, 91 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 1: that is this pair of manned machine guns inside a 92 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 1: plexiglass dome or ball on the bottom of the aircraft. Yeah, 93 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: it's I'm sure it looked science fiction e at the time, 94 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:01,839 Speaker 1: and it still looks science fiction and when you see 95 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:05,080 Speaker 1: it now if you're if you're not expecting it. Uh So, 96 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:08,039 Speaker 1: this is the Sperry ball turret. And it was only 97 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: introduced in the in the B seventeen E series, but 98 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: it was included on in all subsequent series of the 99 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: B seventeen bomber. It was also deployed in the B 100 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:19,720 Speaker 1: twenty four Liberator, which is another heavy bomber, and then 101 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:21,960 Speaker 1: a couple of a couple of other planes. But yeah, 102 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: it was super small, so small that you typically had 103 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: to pinpoint a particularly small adult airmen to go into 104 00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:33,040 Speaker 1: the ball, and then on top of it, was in 105 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,200 Speaker 1: a comfy uh not comfy, the exact opposite of comfy, cozy, 106 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: snug tight yeah. In fact, he is essentially in a 107 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:44,839 Speaker 1: fetal position the whole time. Only instead of of having 108 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 1: all of the warmth and safety that you know comes 109 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:50,280 Speaker 1: with the idea of returning to the womb, you are not. 110 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: You are not in the womb in the ball turret. 111 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 1: You're not even in the middle of the plane. You're 112 00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:58,640 Speaker 1: you're beneath the plane. You're sort of halfway hanging out 113 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:04,480 Speaker 1: underneath the that this this bomber exposed to any interceptor 114 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: aircraft that are flying up underneath, and hopefully you're gonna 115 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:09,800 Speaker 1: be able to do something about it with your machine guns. 116 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,200 Speaker 1: And something goes wrong, well, the bad news is there's 117 00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:15,599 Speaker 1: there's not actually room in the ball for you to 118 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 1: wear your parachute. Uh. In some cases they would leave 119 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: the parachute uh just above them in the main fuselage, 120 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: or if there was room, you might bring it in 121 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:27,960 Speaker 1: strapped your chest. That's gonna come back in just a minute. 122 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: So I've thought about the ball to it a lot, 123 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,839 Speaker 1: Not because I I know nearly as much about about 124 00:06:33,920 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: older aircraft as you, Robert, but because specifically because of 125 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: a poem that I read for the first time many 126 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,760 Speaker 1: years ago. That it's just a five line poem by 127 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:45,200 Speaker 1: the American poet Randall Jarrell called the Death of the 128 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: Ball Turret Gunner. It was written in n about his 129 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: World War Two experience, and it captures this, uh, this 130 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: sort of cramped terror. Here. It goes from my mother's sleep. 131 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,479 Speaker 1: I fell into the state and I hunched in its 132 00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:03,080 Speaker 1: belly to all my wet fur froze six miles from earth, 133 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,320 Speaker 1: loosed from its dream of life. I woke to black 134 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: flak and the Nightmare fighters. When I died, they washed 135 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 1: me out of the turret with a hose. Oh man, 136 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: that is rough. I don't think i've heard that before. Um, 137 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:18,920 Speaker 1: I should throw in like a couple of things. So, 138 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,960 Speaker 1: first of all, the turret does like rotate and move around. 139 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 1: It's like a little carnival ride underneath the plane. So 140 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 1: you can aim right, Yeah, you need more degrees of 141 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: freedom to chase the moving targets that are coming at 142 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:32,400 Speaker 1: you from below. Right, And and on top of that, 143 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:36,320 Speaker 1: I cannot begin to imagine how terrifying it really was. 144 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:39,160 Speaker 1: Like I get a little anxious when I fly in general, 145 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: and to imagine myself like slung below this uh this 146 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: you know, rattling warplane crammed into a clear ball, the 147 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 1: bottom just exposed. And then if you have like you know, 148 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:53,560 Speaker 1: all these uh you know, all the chaos of war, 149 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:58,040 Speaker 1: the explosions happening all around you. Um. I recently watched 150 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:02,480 Speaker 1: Hulse adaptation of Catch twin two, which is different aircraft, 151 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:06,080 Speaker 1: um and no ball to it, but it does a 152 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:09,400 Speaker 1: great job of just showing, uh, you know, immersing you 153 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:12,640 Speaker 1: in this idea of just how terrifying a bomber run was. 154 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:15,240 Speaker 1: Even in Catch twenty two, they're not even dealing with 155 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: interceptor craft. They're just dealing with anti aircraft fire, and 156 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:21,640 Speaker 1: it's they just do a wonderful job of just making 157 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:24,960 Speaker 1: you feel the sheer terror of the characters flying into 158 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,920 Speaker 1: battle without you know, a bunch of heroic nonsense, you know, 159 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:31,080 Speaker 1: label ladled on top of it. Because ultimately that's what 160 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:35,720 Speaker 1: Catched twenty two is about, dispelling the hero myth with 161 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,480 Speaker 1: a healthy dose of absurdity. Yeah, well, I want to 162 00:08:39,520 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: talk about one of those terrifying experiences and use that 163 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:46,520 Speaker 1: to connect to the subject of the rest of today's episode. So, uh, 164 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:49,720 Speaker 1: let's look at the story of one particular bald her 165 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,720 Speaker 1: at gunner during World War Two. He was an American 166 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: staff sergeant named Alan either Magey or McGee mg e E. 167 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:00,120 Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him McGee for the rest of the 168 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:04,040 Speaker 1: episode here. So, in January of nineteen forty three, staff 169 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:07,280 Speaker 1: Sergeant McGee was manning the turret of a B seventeen 170 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:11,319 Speaker 1: that had been nicknamed snap crackle pop. Uh. Don't know 171 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: what that comes from, but I have to imagine it's 172 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:17,080 Speaker 1: from probably bullets hitting the plane. I don't know, but 173 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:19,440 Speaker 1: that's my guess. So the plane was on a bombing 174 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:23,560 Speaker 1: run over an area of Nazi occupied France when it 175 00:09:23,679 --> 00:09:26,960 Speaker 1: suddenly took heavy fire from German fighters and it began 176 00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:29,560 Speaker 1: to break apart in the air at about twenty thousand 177 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:33,640 Speaker 1: feet or about six thousand seven meters up and in 178 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,480 Speaker 1: the chaos as the airplane was coming apart in the atmosphere, 179 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:41,600 Speaker 1: McGee managed to escape his ball turret and jump out 180 00:09:41,640 --> 00:09:45,720 Speaker 1: of the falling and separating plane parts. But he didn't 181 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,120 Speaker 1: have a parachute. He had not been wearing one probably 182 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:50,280 Speaker 1: because he couldn't fit in the ball with it on, 183 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: so he's outside the plane falling at twenty feet. So 184 00:09:55,679 --> 00:09:58,880 Speaker 1: you would think, obviously this is just certain death, right, Yeah, 185 00:09:58,920 --> 00:10:01,400 Speaker 1: there just would be no you survive, You're just you're 186 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: just dead in the air, basically, Yeah, falling without a 187 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: parachute for twenty feet, which is about six point one 188 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,240 Speaker 1: kilometers in altitude, there's no way to survive that. But 189 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:15,640 Speaker 1: strangely McGhee didn't die. He lost consciousness during the fall, 190 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:17,840 Speaker 1: probably due to a lack of oxygen, right because up 191 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:21,480 Speaker 1: at that atmosphere, the up that altitude, the atmosphere is thinner. 192 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:24,800 Speaker 1: You can't get enough oxygen, so you pass out. But 193 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 1: then he woke up. He woke up hours later on 194 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:30,520 Speaker 1: the ground to find himself a prisoner of war being 195 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:33,600 Speaker 1: treated by German medics, and he had a few broken 196 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: bones and he had cuts all over his body, but 197 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:40,760 Speaker 1: he was alive. Apparently the way McGhee survived had to 198 00:10:40,800 --> 00:10:44,160 Speaker 1: do with how he landed. Instead of hitting the ground, 199 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 1: McGhee had just by luck, crashed through a glass ceiling 200 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:52,720 Speaker 1: in a train station at St. Nazaire, and the impact 201 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,880 Speaker 1: of crashing through the glass must have slowed his fall 202 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,480 Speaker 1: enough that he was not killed when he hit the 203 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:02,280 Speaker 1: floor below. And so as unbelievable as this story is, 204 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:05,319 Speaker 1: McGee is not the only one. There are actually lots 205 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:10,400 Speaker 1: of interesting, fascinating, long false survival stories in which people fall, 206 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,480 Speaker 1: you know, what would normally be absolutely lethal distances without 207 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:18,280 Speaker 1: a parachute, but somehow managed to survive in one way 208 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:20,880 Speaker 1: or another. And that's what we wanted to talk about today, 209 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:23,199 Speaker 1: and and it should we should drive home like we're 210 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:27,719 Speaker 1: dealing We're dealing with distances here that are almost this 211 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: seems almost absolutely lethal and you certainly do not have 212 00:11:31,679 --> 00:11:35,080 Speaker 1: to fall far at all to suffer a fatal injury. 213 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:37,439 Speaker 1: Oh no, you can easily die from a ten or 214 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: twenty foot fall. But that they're falling from ten thousand, 215 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:44,800 Speaker 1: twenty thousand feet, it just seems astounding. It seems unreal 216 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:48,440 Speaker 1: Like to survive such a fall, you would just have 217 00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:51,480 Speaker 1: to become just instantly hyper religious, right, you just have 218 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:56,040 Speaker 1: to assume angels appeared and uh and took your unconscious 219 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:57,920 Speaker 1: body down to the earth. Well, a lot of people 220 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:00,520 Speaker 1: do kind of go to those miraculous X nations, but 221 00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:04,160 Speaker 1: it turns out that there are some pretty consistent, not 222 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:09,000 Speaker 1: totally consistent, but there are some common physical characteristics of 223 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:13,080 Speaker 1: the types of falls that people survive from. It has 224 00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:16,200 Speaker 1: to do with how you fall, how you land, where 225 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:19,160 Speaker 1: you land, and so that's what we wanted to explore 226 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:21,400 Speaker 1: for the rest of the day. Now, one thing that's 227 00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:23,840 Speaker 1: funny is that, like, it seems like falling out of 228 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:27,320 Speaker 1: an airplane must be so much worse than just say, 229 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 1: falling off of a really tall building or something, but 230 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:32,800 Speaker 1: in fact that's not the case. If if you are 231 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: falling long enough to achieve what's called terminal velocity. Will 232 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,080 Speaker 1: explain more about that in a bit. It's a speed 233 00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: that's not a not a constant, but it's going to 234 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 1: vary depending on who you are, what you're what you weigh, 235 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:46,839 Speaker 1: what you're shaped like, what you're wearing, you know how, 236 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. As long as you fall 237 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:51,720 Speaker 1: far enough to achieve that, and that might just be 238 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:55,559 Speaker 1: you know, a few hundred meters, then you then you're 239 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:58,080 Speaker 1: basically falling as fast as you're gonna fall, And actually 240 00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:00,800 Speaker 1: falling from an airplane isn't any worse and in some 241 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:05,000 Speaker 1: crazy ways could actually be better. Uh So, but anyway, well, 242 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:06,679 Speaker 1: we'll come back to all that, I wanted to talk 243 00:13:06,679 --> 00:13:09,760 Speaker 1: about a few other known cases from history. So one 244 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:13,000 Speaker 1: case of somebody who fell out of an airplane and 245 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:16,640 Speaker 1: survived is Christine Mackenzie. She didn't actually fall out of 246 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:20,320 Speaker 1: an airplane. She jumped. She's an experienced South African skydiver 247 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: who had already jumped more than a hundred times when 248 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:28,640 Speaker 1: both her main parachute and her backup parachute failed on 249 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:32,200 Speaker 1: the same freefall in August two thousand four, So she 250 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: fell about eleven thousand feet and survived by instead of 251 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:40,880 Speaker 1: hitting the ground directly, she first hit some suspended power 252 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: lines before impact, and sort of like the glass ceiling 253 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,800 Speaker 1: in McGee's fall, the tension of the power lines is 254 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:50,080 Speaker 1: thought to have absorbed a lot of the energy of 255 00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:53,000 Speaker 1: her fall and slowed her down in the process, so 256 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,040 Speaker 1: that when she finally hit the ground, she ended up 257 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 1: with only a broken pelvis. Her fall lasted about forty 258 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:03,200 Speaker 1: five seconds. So let's let's entertain belief in guardian angels 259 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:05,959 Speaker 1: again for a second. Can you imagine the sort of 260 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:09,400 Speaker 1: scenario where you're falling and then the angel appears and says, look, 261 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:12,520 Speaker 1: I know this looks bad, but don't worry you're headed 262 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:18,760 Speaker 1: towards some high tension wires. Everything's gonna be fine. I 263 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:20,600 Speaker 1: just assume I would be. I would assume I would 264 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:23,360 Speaker 1: be torn in half. You know, Uh well, I mean, 265 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: I'm sure, I'm sure. It depends on like how you 266 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 1: hit them. And another name, This one comes up a lot. 267 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:33,200 Speaker 1: It's a very famous case. This is Vesna Volkovich. Some 268 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:36,120 Speaker 1: of the details of the Volovich case have been disputed. 269 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,280 Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into those whole disputes. I'm 270 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:41,320 Speaker 1: just going to talk about the version that's most often reported. So. 271 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:45,280 Speaker 1: Vesna Volovich was a Serbian flight attendant on a DC 272 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: nine that was in the air over the Czech Republic 273 00:14:47,800 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen two when the cabin exploded, probably due to 274 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:56,240 Speaker 1: a bomb from a terrorism attack. She fell more than 275 00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:00,320 Speaker 1: ten thousand one or more than thirty three thousand feet 276 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: without a parachute, and she suffered severe injuries and broken 277 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:08,280 Speaker 1: bones and was in a coma for weeks. But she survived, 278 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: and the question is how well. Her survival is usually 279 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: attributed to the fact that while most of the rest 280 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:16,880 Speaker 1: of the passengers were blown out of the cabin when 281 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:21,240 Speaker 1: the fuselage broke apart, Volkovich was pinned inside by a 282 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:24,120 Speaker 1: food card and possibly by another member of the crew 283 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: or a passenger, and so she stuck inside the fuselage. 284 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 1: And then the broken part of the fuselage in which 285 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 1: she was stuck just happened to land on a snowy 286 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: tree covered hillside, and it's believed that the trees and 287 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:40,760 Speaker 1: the snow cushioned the impact. After she woke up, she 288 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,000 Speaker 1: had no memory of the crash, and she lived until 289 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,400 Speaker 1: six She's often cited as the record holder for the 290 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:49,880 Speaker 1: survivor of the longest fall without a parachute. Wow. That 291 00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:52,360 Speaker 1: that is incredible. And and also I just want to 292 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,560 Speaker 1: apologize to any other nervous flyers out there who are 293 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:57,960 Speaker 1: listening to this. Hopefully you're not listening to this at 294 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 1: the airport. Oh maybe we should have warned you now, 295 00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:05,440 Speaker 1: you know, if you if you weren't aware by now, 296 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: if you didn't pause the episode by now, then I 297 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:10,200 Speaker 1: guess maybe you you do need this episode to make 298 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,280 Speaker 1: it through your flight. Well, I'm sure you've heard it 299 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: a million times before and it probably doesn't help with 300 00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,000 Speaker 1: your fear, but it is a fact that flying is 301 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: extremely safe. Commercial flying these days is extremely safe. Yes, 302 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:23,240 Speaker 1: if you know, if you are on a commercial jet 303 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:26,560 Speaker 1: with like an accredited pilot and all that. Like your 304 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:29,520 Speaker 1: your chances of having something bad happen are extremely low. 305 00:16:29,880 --> 00:16:32,200 Speaker 1: So stick that in the logical side of your brain. 306 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:35,760 Speaker 1: It's probably already arguing with the logical side that is 307 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:38,840 Speaker 1: the whole reason you have the nerves. Anyway, let's go 308 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,560 Speaker 1: with one more example here. This is a survival story 309 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:46,480 Speaker 1: of Julien Kepki now Julienne Diller. She's a German woman 310 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:49,800 Speaker 1: or is a German woman who as a teenager survived 311 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: a plane crash in the Amazon in ninety one from 312 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,560 Speaker 1: an altitude of over three kilometers after a plane was 313 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 1: struck by lightning. She was the lone survivor of the crab. 314 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 1: And then she not only survived the crash from from 315 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:07,240 Speaker 1: over three kilometers of altitude. After that she had to 316 00:17:07,320 --> 00:17:10,920 Speaker 1: navigate her way through the rainforest to find help with 317 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,480 Speaker 1: no supplies except basically a bag of candy, oh my goodness. 318 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: And after searching for ten days she found help from 319 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,640 Speaker 1: a group of loggers and was taken back to civilization 320 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,120 Speaker 1: for medical treatment. And she's still alive today. So at 321 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:26,960 Speaker 1: this point you're probably wondering, well, well, how casting the 322 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,080 Speaker 1: angels aside, what are the what are the logical, real 323 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:34,600 Speaker 1: life scientific answers? Uh, you know behind these survival stories 324 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 1: where we're gonna take a break and when we come 325 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:41,920 Speaker 1: back we will discuss just that. All right, we're back. 326 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:43,600 Speaker 1: So Robert, you want to look at the physics of 327 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:46,520 Speaker 1: falling from a great height. Let's do it. Okay, So 328 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:48,560 Speaker 1: falling from a great height can kill you in a 329 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,439 Speaker 1: number of ways. I mean, just not to get too graphic, 330 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:54,480 Speaker 1: but one problem would be like what if you fall 331 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:56,480 Speaker 1: on a spike or something. You know, they're all these 332 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,639 Speaker 1: sort of like specific cases of what can happen to 333 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:02,120 Speaker 1: you when hit the ground. But that's the key, right right, 334 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: the fall itself. I mean, that's that's easy enough to do. 335 00:18:05,560 --> 00:18:08,360 Speaker 1: Um And surviving the fall is one thing. It's surviving 336 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:11,440 Speaker 1: the impact that is the problem, right, I mean, no 337 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:15,200 Speaker 1: matter where you land, the main problem that that you're 338 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,199 Speaker 1: going to encounter is going to be the difference between 339 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:21,159 Speaker 1: how fast you were falling and how suddenly you stop. 340 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:25,320 Speaker 1: Uh So, what happens when you fall from an incredible altitude? Well, 341 00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,359 Speaker 1: we know there is gravity, right, There's an attraction between 342 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:30,960 Speaker 1: the Earth and your body due to gravity, and gravity 343 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,439 Speaker 1: accelerates you relentlessly towards the center of the Earth, not 344 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:36,639 Speaker 1: just when you're falling, but even right now, no matter 345 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,679 Speaker 1: where you are, gravity is relentlessly accelerating you towards the 346 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,560 Speaker 1: center of the Earth, and you will continue to accelerate 347 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:46,800 Speaker 1: towards the center of the Earth until something like the ground, 348 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 1: or water or the air provides a compensating resistance to 349 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:53,399 Speaker 1: stop you from from going faster towards the center of 350 00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:55,639 Speaker 1: the Earth. So that's probably the ground that's doing that 351 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:58,320 Speaker 1: to you right now. Yeah. I recently was thinking a 352 00:18:58,359 --> 00:18:59,800 Speaker 1: bit about this when I was jumping off of a 353 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,080 Speaker 1: high dive. Um, and I had been a long time 354 00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:05,560 Speaker 1: since I jumped off a high dive, but I was 355 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:08,560 Speaker 1: just really struck by just the feeling of of of 356 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:12,399 Speaker 1: being wanted by gravity. Like you you really you really 357 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:15,000 Speaker 1: feel it, uh, you know, more so than off of 358 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: just a normal board. You feel yourself accelerating. You feel yourself, 359 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: you know, pulled down with dramatic speed toward the surface 360 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:24,240 Speaker 1: of the water. Well, yeah, it's kind of weird to 361 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:26,240 Speaker 1: think about, but the force of gravity and the force 362 00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:31,000 Speaker 1: of acceleration feel exactly the same to us. They are indistinguishable. 363 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:33,080 Speaker 1: They act the same way on our bodies. This is 364 00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:37,959 Speaker 1: why you can use acceleration to provide artificial gravity and space. 365 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,119 Speaker 1: Right just by like continuously accelerating a capsule or providing 366 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:46,200 Speaker 1: angular momentum acceleration and a circular pattern, you can pretty 367 00:19:46,280 --> 00:19:49,760 Speaker 1: much perfectly simulate what gravity is like. So if you're 368 00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:52,120 Speaker 1: on or near the Earth surface, you are sort of 369 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: permanently on an invisible train that wants to begin accelerating 370 00:19:56,600 --> 00:19:59,760 Speaker 1: straight down at nine point eight meters per second per second, 371 00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,560 Speaker 1: and we'll just keep going nine point eight meters per 372 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:06,400 Speaker 1: second faster every second, and it's always going to start 373 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,720 Speaker 1: chugging unless there's something pushing you back, pushing you to 374 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:12,679 Speaker 1: hold you in place. Now, there's one physics fact we 375 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:14,720 Speaker 1: all i think learned in school, which can be kind 376 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: of confusing here, So we need to make a sort 377 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:21,000 Speaker 1: of obvious but important distinction. The acceleration due to gravity 378 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,719 Speaker 1: is the same for all falling objects near Earth's surface. 379 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,760 Speaker 1: That's nine point eight meters per second per second, no 380 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:31,240 Speaker 1: matter what you are, what kind of object you're talking about. 381 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:34,400 Speaker 1: But that does not mean that all objects fall at 382 00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:37,040 Speaker 1: the same rate. This is obvious because of the effects 383 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:40,880 Speaker 1: of drag caused by air resistance acting on the falling object. 384 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,600 Speaker 1: So this is pretty obvious. When you drop a feather 385 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 1: and a hammer side by side, obviously the hammer hits 386 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,760 Speaker 1: the ground first, unless say you're on the Moon where 387 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:53,200 Speaker 1: there is no atmosphere. And this is actually a demonstration 388 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:55,440 Speaker 1: that was put on during a moonwalk by the American 389 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:59,359 Speaker 1: astronaut David Scott in they were out on the Have 390 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:01,679 Speaker 1: you seen the video of this, Robert, I have, yes, Uh, 391 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:05,000 Speaker 1: it's it's impressive. There also have been some recent videos 392 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 1: that that have been put together using a vacuum chamber, 393 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:12,000 Speaker 1: but they're also just as Uh. It is fascinating to 394 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:15,680 Speaker 1: watch because it seems it defies expectations because our expectations 395 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: are based on a world of atmosphere exactly right. Yeah, 396 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,399 Speaker 1: and the and the vacuum chamber and on earth works 397 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,680 Speaker 1: just as good because it's nothing about the gravitational properties 398 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:27,120 Speaker 1: of the Moon that make the feather fall just as 399 00:21:27,119 --> 00:21:29,159 Speaker 1: fast as the hammer. It's the fact, like you say, 400 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,200 Speaker 1: that there is no atmosphere to push up against it, uh, 401 00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:34,960 Speaker 1: not no air to slow down the feather. By the 402 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,040 Speaker 1: way I I looked it up, it was a falcon feather. Huh. 403 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,680 Speaker 1: I wonder without knowing the answer, if if there was 404 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:42,840 Speaker 1: like a committee that decided that, where they're like, what 405 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:45,360 Speaker 1: kind of feather are we sending on the mission and 406 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:47,480 Speaker 1: someone's like, oh, it should be the turkey, and it 407 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:50,199 Speaker 1: should be it should be an American eagle. Uh just 408 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: like in basically have the same conversation. They had a 409 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:57,960 Speaker 1: song about it the dove. Uh So, Anyway, if you're 410 00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 1: near Earth's surface and you're falling, gravity is going to 411 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,000 Speaker 1: keep accelerating you faster and faster until the drag of 412 00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:06,720 Speaker 1: the atmosphere on your body, which we call air resistance, 413 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:10,000 Speaker 1: stops you from speeding up anymore. And there you level 414 00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:12,600 Speaker 1: out at a top speed, and it's never gonna be 415 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:16,360 Speaker 1: an exactly perfect level top speed. You sort of approach 416 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:19,320 Speaker 1: a top speed and get within of it and then 417 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:23,280 Speaker 1: wobble up and down, and we call this terminal velocity. Now, 418 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:26,760 Speaker 1: exactly how fast terminal velocity is depends on a number 419 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:30,159 Speaker 1: of factors. It's the shape of the falling object. Like 420 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:33,240 Speaker 1: a one pound dart will fall faster than a one 421 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:36,520 Speaker 1: pound blanket, right because the blanket spreads out it catches 422 00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:40,120 Speaker 1: the air. The weight of the falling object obviously heavier 423 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,920 Speaker 1: objects have more power to overcome the air resistance forces 424 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 1: on them. The position or orientation of the following object. 425 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,680 Speaker 1: So imagine you drop a plate and you could drop 426 00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:52,640 Speaker 1: it flat side down or you could drop it thin 427 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: side down, and that's going to make a difference. Another 428 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:58,000 Speaker 1: thing is what medium the object is falling through and 429 00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:01,080 Speaker 1: how dense the medium is. For example, you can fall 430 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:05,119 Speaker 1: faster higher in the atmosphere because the gas around you 431 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:08,240 Speaker 1: is thinner. This is something that these high altitude jumpers 432 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: of experience, like Felix bomb Gardner, you know, went up 433 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,720 Speaker 1: super high in the atmosphere and jumped and was going 434 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,000 Speaker 1: faster earlier in the jump, but got slowed down as 435 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,399 Speaker 1: the atmosphere got thicker closer to the ground. So, based 436 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,600 Speaker 1: on all these kinds of factors, for an adult human 437 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:25,840 Speaker 1: falling through the atmosphere with no parachute, terminal velocity is 438 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:28,560 Speaker 1: going to vary a lot. Of A common figure I've 439 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,520 Speaker 1: seen cited for an adult human is that terminal velocity 440 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,280 Speaker 1: might be somewhere around a hundred kilometers per hour, which 441 00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:37,720 Speaker 1: is about fifty four meters per second, or about a 442 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: hundred and twenty miles per hour. And this seems to 443 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:42,720 Speaker 1: be the case, maybe if you are trying to fall 444 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: as slowly as possible, say in a belly flop position, 445 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,879 Speaker 1: which sort of turns your body into a bio parachute, 446 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,239 Speaker 1: right because you try to spread out and catch as 447 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,119 Speaker 1: much wind as possible. But I was reading an article 448 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,959 Speaker 1: by Frazer Kine at Universe Today, and he claimed that 449 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,800 Speaker 1: the skydivers who orient their body is like a dart 450 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 1: so streamlined head first and so forth, can accelerate to 451 00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,240 Speaker 1: a much higher terminal velocity of more like four hundred 452 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:10,840 Speaker 1: kilometers per hour, which is around a hundred and eleven 453 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,119 Speaker 1: meters per second, which is like double the speed of 454 00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 1: the belly flop orientation we were just talking about. And again, 455 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,280 Speaker 1: of course it varies depending on other factors about your body, 456 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: your clothes and all that. Another thing that's going to 457 00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:25,640 Speaker 1: vary is how far you have to fall before you 458 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:29,639 Speaker 1: reach or not reach, but approach terminal velocity. Again, this 459 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,240 Speaker 1: is going to vary according to all these individual factors 460 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,560 Speaker 1: about your body and how you're falling and all that. 461 00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:38,000 Speaker 1: But I've come across some wildly different estimates. So one 462 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,320 Speaker 1: article I was reading in The Guardian by Ian sample 463 00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,879 Speaker 1: consulted Howie Weiss, who is a professor of mathematics at 464 00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,520 Speaker 1: Penn State University, to calculate the rules, specifically for the 465 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:52,200 Speaker 1: case of Vestna Volkovich, the Serbian flight attendant who survived 466 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,639 Speaker 1: the like thirty three thousand footfall. According to Weiss quote, 467 00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: a free falling a hundred and twenty pound or fifty 468 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:01,160 Speaker 1: four woman would have a turn rminal velocity of about 469 00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 1: thirty eight meters per second uh and UH, and she 470 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:09,080 Speaker 1: would achieve of the speed and about seven seconds. This 471 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:11,400 Speaker 1: means that she would be falling about as fast as 472 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,080 Speaker 1: possible after falling for only a hundred and sixty seven 473 00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,480 Speaker 1: meters or about five hundred and fifty feet. Other estimates 474 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:21,040 Speaker 1: for human terminal velocity takes significantly more time and distance, 475 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:23,920 Speaker 1: but suffice to say that if you fall out of 476 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,000 Speaker 1: an airplane at cruising altitude, there is no doubt that 477 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:29,640 Speaker 1: you will end up falling as fast as you possibly can, 478 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,800 Speaker 1: and it will be very fast. It might be, you know, 479 00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,800 Speaker 1: between two hundred and four hundred kilometers per hour. An 480 00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:39,959 Speaker 1: interesting side note is just some anecdotes I was reading 481 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:44,360 Speaker 1: about about skydiving that mentioned what it feels like when 482 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 1: you approach terminal velocity on a fall, Like, apparently the 483 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:53,240 Speaker 1: body sensation is different from the sensation during that period 484 00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:56,640 Speaker 1: of constant acceleration that we're used to in a fall. Normally, 485 00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,480 Speaker 1: we don't ever reach terminal velocity, so don't know what 486 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,080 Speaker 1: it feels like. So we think of a fall as 487 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,480 Speaker 1: this feeling of weightlessness, you know, the free fall feeling. 488 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: But apparently once you get in your terminal velocity, I've 489 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:13,040 Speaker 1: seen some people claim you sort of feel your weight again. 490 00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:15,480 Speaker 1: You sort of feel as if you are resting on 491 00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:18,560 Speaker 1: a cushion made of wind. Does that make sense, like, 492 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:22,040 Speaker 1: because you're not accelerating anymore, right, right? Yeah? Because like 493 00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:24,000 Speaker 1: I said when I when I jump off jumped off 494 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,000 Speaker 1: the high dive a couple of weeks ago, I definitely 495 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:30,480 Speaker 1: felt acceleration. I did not feel weightless. I felt very weighted. Um. 496 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:32,960 Speaker 1: But yeah, if you're reaching the point where where you're 497 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,119 Speaker 1: no longer accelerating, yeah, it seems like you would you 498 00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,200 Speaker 1: would reach this point where everything is normalized at least 499 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:40,679 Speaker 1: for a few more seconds. Well, there you might. This 500 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,960 Speaker 1: is interesting because I sometimes feel like the words feel 501 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:45,919 Speaker 1: it that way too. But you're sort of inverting the 502 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:50,000 Speaker 1: weightless versus weighted feeling right, Like do astronauts who are 503 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:53,640 Speaker 1: forever accelerating because they're forever in free fall do they 504 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,160 Speaker 1: feel weight less or weighted? I guess they would say 505 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:58,879 Speaker 1: weight less, but yeah, you could also think of it 506 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,439 Speaker 1: as like you feel way less when your body is 507 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:06,200 Speaker 1: supported by something, or if you just stop to contemplate gravity, 508 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 1: you can start feeling rather weighted. You know it's the because, again, 509 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,280 Speaker 1: these forces are acting on us at all all times. 510 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,080 Speaker 1: We just are used to a certain level. As we 511 00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:18,439 Speaker 1: brought up a minute ago. We know from lots of 512 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:22,320 Speaker 1: human experience that a fall from just like ten can 513 00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,560 Speaker 1: easily kill a person depending on how they land, and 514 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:28,159 Speaker 1: in those cases, you wouldn't be traveling anywhere near your 515 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:31,480 Speaker 1: terminal velocity. So obviously hitting the ground from a fall 516 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,639 Speaker 1: of a few hundred meters or more is going to 517 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,160 Speaker 1: cause massive trauma to the body and will almost always 518 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,959 Speaker 1: result in death. But like, how what actually happens here 519 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,440 Speaker 1: in the body? Well, since falling from a great height 520 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:46,719 Speaker 1: applies massive impact force to your body when you hit 521 00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:48,679 Speaker 1: the ground, there are a lot of different ways for 522 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,840 Speaker 1: the fall to kill you, but apparently the most common 523 00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:55,520 Speaker 1: fatal injury is caused by a fall or arterial damage 524 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,040 Speaker 1: due to the breaking of the spine. Sorry to get 525 00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:59,919 Speaker 1: graphic here for a second, but this is just for 526 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,880 Speaker 1: the sake of specificity. Uh. The article in the Guardian 527 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,160 Speaker 1: quote Sean Hughes, who's a professor of surgery at Imperial 528 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,320 Speaker 1: College London, who says the quote, most people who fall 529 00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: from a great height die because they fracture their spine 530 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,359 Speaker 1: near the top and so transsect the a order which 531 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,199 Speaker 1: carries blood out of the heart. And so obviously that 532 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,920 Speaker 1: pretty clear why that would kill you. That that's very bad, 533 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,000 Speaker 1: all right, So we have we have we've described the 534 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,120 Speaker 1: problem here of falling from a great height and and 535 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,760 Speaker 1: and by necessity impacting the ground. We're gonna take a break. 536 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,679 Speaker 1: When we come back, we're going to discuss what the 537 00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:38,720 Speaker 1: survival tactics actually are, you know too, and the extent 538 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 1: to which you can actually deploy them during free fall. 539 00:28:42,760 --> 00:28:47,040 Speaker 1: Thank alright, we're back. So obviously any fall from a 540 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,520 Speaker 1: great height is going to be really dangerous and it 541 00:28:49,560 --> 00:28:53,760 Speaker 1: would probably kill anybody. So these high altitude survival stories 542 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:56,200 Speaker 1: are very unlikely, and you should not get it in 543 00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,120 Speaker 1: your head that you can like jump out of an 544 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:02,800 Speaker 1: airplane and survive it. There are some factors that appear 545 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: to increase a person's odds of surviving a great fall 546 00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:08,400 Speaker 1: out of the sky, at least based on the anecdotes 547 00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:12,360 Speaker 1: we have, so let's talk about them. I wanted to 548 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:14,960 Speaker 1: refer to a couple of pretty good articles I found 549 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:17,920 Speaker 1: on this subject, sort of collecting the opinions of experts 550 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:20,800 Speaker 1: over the years on long free falls. One was a 551 00:29:20,840 --> 00:29:23,760 Speaker 1: two thousand ten article in Popular Mechanics by Dan Keppel. 552 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:28,920 Speaker 1: One was a more recent article in NPR by Paul Chisholm. 553 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,640 Speaker 1: And the Paul Chisholm article and NPR spoke to an 554 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 1: associate professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana State University named 555 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:41,600 Speaker 1: Rhet Alan, who pointed out that obviously, human survival of 556 00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,400 Speaker 1: long free falls is not something you can run real 557 00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 1: life experiments on. You can't push people out of airplanes 558 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,920 Speaker 1: to test it out, so we can only reason based 559 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 1: on sort of hypothetical scenarios and by analyzing the anecdotes 560 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,400 Speaker 1: of people who actually survive accidental falls. So we're sort of, 561 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:00,720 Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of like digging up fossils. It's 562 00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:03,520 Speaker 1: like we're stuck with whatever data happened to have already 563 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:06,360 Speaker 1: you know, been available to us. Yeah, and it's also 564 00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:09,200 Speaker 1: it's kind of a it's very much like it's a 565 00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,800 Speaker 1: modern problem that's presented itself, you know. I mean we've 566 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:16,280 Speaker 1: barely had airplanes and uh, you know, and into a 567 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:20,120 Speaker 1: certain extent, we've barely had had had the sort of 568 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,080 Speaker 1: massive structures or even access to some of the massive 569 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 1: features to to engage in these types of falls to 570 00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,760 Speaker 1: begin with. Sure, all right, so first question, how to fall? 571 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:33,280 Speaker 1: Capital points out that you're you're actually probably better off 572 00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:35,400 Speaker 1: falling out of a plane than falling out of a 573 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:37,360 Speaker 1: tall building from a height of more than a few 574 00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:41,880 Speaker 1: hundred feet, because you're gonna reach similarly high speeds either way. 575 00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:43,920 Speaker 1: But if you fall out out of a building, you 576 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:45,880 Speaker 1: don't really have any time, right, You're gonna hit the 577 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,360 Speaker 1: ground pretty much before you know it, Whereas if you 578 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,480 Speaker 1: fall out of the sky a few thousand meters up, 579 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,240 Speaker 1: you may actually have more time to plan your descend. Yeah, 580 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:57,080 Speaker 1: like the figures I was I was looking at or 581 00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,440 Speaker 1: that if you were to jump, if you jump out 582 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:01,920 Speaker 1: of a plane at a thousand feet, you basically have 583 00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,040 Speaker 1: one minute, uh not counting you know, any you know, 584 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,520 Speaker 1: types of shoots you a deploy et cetera. But you 585 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,800 Speaker 1: basically have a minute of of of of descent. Now 586 00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,440 Speaker 1: there are some downsides there too, though, jumping out of 587 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,440 Speaker 1: a plane. Uh, if you're higher up in the atmosphere, 588 00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:20,560 Speaker 1: it's very possible that you could pass out due to hypoxia. 589 00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,720 Speaker 1: Thinner atmosphere, your your lack of access to oxygen means 590 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:26,960 Speaker 1: that you black out and then maybe you know, you 591 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:29,920 Speaker 1: are not able to actually plan your descent at all 592 00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 1: because you because you're unconscious. Of course, I don't know 593 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,440 Speaker 1: if there's anything you can do about that other than 594 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:38,600 Speaker 1: if you know, you always want to have an oxygen 595 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,560 Speaker 1: mask with you. That that doesn't seem very practical. Uh. 596 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:46,040 Speaker 1: The Massachusetts based amateur historian Jim Hamilton's has collected reports 597 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,640 Speaker 1: of free fall survivors and noticed a few trends about 598 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:53,040 Speaker 1: survival rates in the different ways that people fall. So, 599 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,400 Speaker 1: passengers from airplanes, he finds, are more likely to survive 600 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:01,240 Speaker 1: if they arrive at the ground among other wreckage. He 601 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:05,440 Speaker 1: calls these people wreckage riders. That's that they're more likely 602 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:08,440 Speaker 1: to survive that than if they fall free of the 603 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:12,160 Speaker 1: plane and hit the ground. Independently, He's found almost three 604 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:16,040 Speaker 1: times as many cases of people surviving from airplane altitude 605 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:18,320 Speaker 1: as a as a wreckage writer than he has of 606 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:21,440 Speaker 1: people surviving a solo fall like Alan Magee did or 607 00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:25,640 Speaker 1: McGee did. And it seems that like airplane seats and 608 00:32:25,760 --> 00:32:29,400 Speaker 1: parts of the airplane fuselage and so forth can sometimes 609 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:33,320 Speaker 1: have a protective cushioning effect at the point of impact. 610 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,840 Speaker 1: So like, so you hit the ground, and sometimes these 611 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:39,440 Speaker 1: things can absorb some of the energy or or slow 612 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:42,320 Speaker 1: your deceleration. Al right, so if it all possible, be 613 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,600 Speaker 1: a wreckage writer, right. Chisholm points out that not like 614 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,600 Speaker 1: you have any control over this, but it helps helps 615 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: you to be smaller because a person's falling speed is 616 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:57,160 Speaker 1: determined by this negotiation between gravity and air resistance. Gravity 617 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,640 Speaker 1: of course accelerates your fall, but air resistant slows you 618 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:02,800 Speaker 1: down and puts a limit on how much gravity can 619 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: accelerate you. So as a human increases in size, this 620 00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,000 Speaker 1: is going to affect the falling body equation in two 621 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:12,600 Speaker 1: different ways. It will increase your weight, which helps gravity 622 00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:16,160 Speaker 1: overcome air resistance and makes your terminal velocity faster, pulls 623 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:20,280 Speaker 1: you faster, but will also increase your surface area. So 624 00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:23,000 Speaker 1: as you increase your surface area, you increase your drag 625 00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 1: and function more like a parachute. So you just have 626 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,520 Speaker 1: to look into the math of which of these factors 627 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: wins out as like a normal like mammal becomes bigger, 628 00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:34,240 Speaker 1: and it turns out the gravity wins out. Even though 629 00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,360 Speaker 1: you increase your surface area, the extra weight makes a 630 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,520 Speaker 1: bigger difference. So like if you drop an ant off 631 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 1: your roof, it's probably gonna be fine when it hits 632 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:44,920 Speaker 1: the ground. You drop a horse off your roof, not 633 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:49,080 Speaker 1: so much. Oh yeah, I mean insects and other invertebrates 634 00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:52,480 Speaker 1: are are a notorously great followers. They can fall from 635 00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:55,600 Speaker 1: great heights and and suffer no damage. Yeah. There's a 636 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:59,680 Speaker 1: quote from JBS holiday In writing in n who wrote, 637 00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,880 Speaker 1: you can drop a mouse down a thousand yard mind shaft, 638 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:05,480 Speaker 1: and on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight 639 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,759 Speaker 1: shock and walks away. A rat is killed, a man 640 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:13,959 Speaker 1: is broken, a horse splashes. Uh. Keppel's article notes also 641 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:17,360 Speaker 1: along similar lines, that it may help to be a child. 642 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,600 Speaker 1: For some reason, many of the survivors of airplane related 643 00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,880 Speaker 1: free fall or children, And this is obviously anecdotal, but 644 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:29,120 Speaker 1: the trend probably indicates something. Uh. He writes quote. The 645 00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:33,279 Speaker 1: Federal Aviation Agency study notes that kids, especially they're those 646 00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: under the age of four, have more flexible skeletons, more 647 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:40,920 Speaker 1: relaxed muscle tonus, and a higher proportion of subcutaneous fat, 648 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:45,240 Speaker 1: which helps protect internal organs. Well, this, this, uh matches 649 00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:47,200 Speaker 1: up with research I've done in the past on just 650 00:34:47,239 --> 00:34:50,240 Speaker 1: sort of the durability of children. Yeah. You know, especially 651 00:34:50,239 --> 00:34:53,799 Speaker 1: as parents, we often think of young children as being 652 00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 1: just you know, highly vulnerable, and in certain respects they are, 653 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,440 Speaker 1: but they are also uh, they having all to be 654 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,279 Speaker 1: durable at that stage as well, and to you know, 655 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,200 Speaker 1: to survive falls and stumbles and the you know, the 656 00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,600 Speaker 1: various kind of hazards that they are inevitably going to 657 00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:13,879 Speaker 1: encounter at that age. Also, this feature of falling might 658 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:16,800 Speaker 1: be obvious, but if you can somehow slow yourself down 659 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,319 Speaker 1: with some kind of parachute like object, that's good. Yeah, 660 00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:22,200 Speaker 1: And that's something that comes up in some of the 661 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 1: accounts I was looking at, because a lot of the 662 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,000 Speaker 1: accounts do involve uh, sky divers, people who are of 663 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,640 Speaker 1: course putting themselves in a position like this on a 664 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,160 Speaker 1: regular basis, you know, actually falling through the sky and 665 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:35,200 Speaker 1: you know, most of the time, they you know that 666 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,759 Speaker 1: their shoots are gonna work just like they hope they would. 667 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,200 Speaker 1: But when you encounter a technical problem with the shoot, 668 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,279 Speaker 1: like sometimes the shoot even though the shoots failing, it 669 00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,040 Speaker 1: is still sort of like half deploying or it's doing 670 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:51,319 Speaker 1: something to spin them around and and potentially uh, you know, 671 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:55,440 Speaker 1: disrupt their acceleration. Yeah. I mean anything that is slowing 672 00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:58,000 Speaker 1: you down as good, even if it's not slowing you 673 00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:00,320 Speaker 1: down as much as it's supposed to. If it's slowing 674 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:04,040 Speaker 1: you down some, that's increasing your odds. Okay, next question 675 00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,080 Speaker 1: is a big question where to land. So if you 676 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,400 Speaker 1: accept that you can somewhat steer your fall by the 677 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:12,839 Speaker 1: way you orient your body in the air, you might 678 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:17,520 Speaker 1: have some amount of power over exactly where you come down. Uh. 679 00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:20,319 Speaker 1: And the bottom line for for where you land is 680 00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,879 Speaker 1: that you want to increase your deceleration distance. You want 681 00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:29,000 Speaker 1: to spread out your slow down over a bigger distance 682 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,680 Speaker 1: rather than slowing down and stopping all at once. So 683 00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:34,879 Speaker 1: if you like in a cartoon, if you could aim 684 00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:37,520 Speaker 1: for the mattress factory exactly, Yeah, that would be where 685 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:39,400 Speaker 1: you would want to land. And this is why landing 686 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:41,600 Speaker 1: in a net helps or something. You know, the net, 687 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: like the tension of it absorbs some of the energy 688 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,840 Speaker 1: of your fall and it slows down your deceleration or 689 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:50,839 Speaker 1: do you decelerate over a longer distance as the net 690 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,840 Speaker 1: stretches when it catches you. So if you could actually 691 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,600 Speaker 1: aim for any enormous circus tent like that would be ideal, 692 00:36:57,800 --> 00:36:59,440 Speaker 1: not I mean, and if there happened to be a 693 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:03,239 Speaker 1: netted inside the circus tent for the trapeze artist, you know, 694 00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:05,320 Speaker 1: I guess that would help as well. Right now, normally 695 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:07,319 Speaker 1: there's not going to be a net out anywhere that 696 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:10,680 Speaker 1: you would be falling, but some there are some things 697 00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:12,719 Speaker 1: that might be kind of equivalent, probably not as good 698 00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:16,160 Speaker 1: as a net. Falling into trees or bushes seems to 699 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,320 Speaker 1: have both positives and negatives, but I think the positives 700 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:24,080 Speaker 1: might outweigh the negatives. By hitting plant matter, you increase 701 00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:27,759 Speaker 1: your deceleration distance and you slow your fall more gradually, 702 00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:29,759 Speaker 1: because I mean, you probably are going to get very 703 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:32,520 Speaker 1: injured if you fall into plant matter. But by like 704 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:36,239 Speaker 1: hitting branches at different levels instead of stopping at the 705 00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:39,680 Speaker 1: ground all at once, you slow your fall. You kind 706 00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:43,040 Speaker 1: of put your your your injury on the installment plant. Yeah, 707 00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:45,480 Speaker 1: but then also you, I mean, there are downsides. You 708 00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,000 Speaker 1: run the risk of being like stabbed by branches as 709 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,520 Speaker 1: you fall into trees, but there are people who have 710 00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:54,239 Speaker 1: survived really long falls by falling into thick plant matter, 711 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,799 Speaker 1: into bushes or into tree limbs. Snow seems to be 712 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:00,440 Speaker 1: a very good choice. There are multiple accounts of people 713 00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 1: surviving great falls after landing in snow. I would imagine 714 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,600 Speaker 1: that unpacked snow is best. Again, you want, you know, 715 00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:10,080 Speaker 1: a softer thing to crash into too slow to increase 716 00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:14,720 Speaker 1: your deceleration distance. Haystacks are apparently good. And then hitting 717 00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:17,560 Speaker 1: the roof of some types of human structures can be 718 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:20,600 Speaker 1: better than hitting solid ground. Specifically if you think that 719 00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:23,640 Speaker 1: the roof might that you might break through the roof 720 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,920 Speaker 1: like Alan McGee crashing through the glass skylight at the 721 00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:30,800 Speaker 1: train station, because this breakthrough point is going to slow 722 00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:34,440 Speaker 1: your fall without completely stopping you all at once. Yeah, 723 00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:37,000 Speaker 1: or like a thatched roof would be ideal as well. 724 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:39,839 Speaker 1: You know, to bring up a pro wrestling example here, 725 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,359 Speaker 1: anyone who has watched the pro wrestling has probably seen 726 00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:46,440 Speaker 1: somebody fall off of something through a table, through something 727 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:50,520 Speaker 1: like a folding table, it makes an impressive noise. It 728 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,600 Speaker 1: looks impressive to watch this falling body. Uh you know 729 00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:56,719 Speaker 1: destroy a table, sometimes two or three tables on the 730 00:38:56,719 --> 00:39:00,040 Speaker 1: way down. But of course ultimately that is breaking the 731 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:02,880 Speaker 1: fall of the wrestler and hurt the more to just 732 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,319 Speaker 1: go straight to the ground. Yeah. The accounts I've heard 733 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,319 Speaker 1: of from pro wrestlers of them taking bumps where they say, 734 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:10,480 Speaker 1: jump off of the top rope and land just on 735 00:39:10,520 --> 00:39:14,319 Speaker 1: their back at the ringside, like that has been Like, 736 00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:17,000 Speaker 1: those have been the scarier bumps they've described where they 737 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:20,360 Speaker 1: talk about their like feeling their organs like jostle around 738 00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:23,799 Speaker 1: inside their body. That is not a feeling I want 739 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:25,759 Speaker 1: to feel. Right. So, in the same way, if you're 740 00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:27,920 Speaker 1: falling off the top rope, you should aim for the 741 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,480 Speaker 1: tables and uh, you know, even if it's not completely cafe. 742 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:33,520 Speaker 1: And if you're jumping out of the if you're falling 743 00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:35,400 Speaker 1: out of that plane, you should aim for the thatch, 744 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:39,799 Speaker 1: groof for the or even the the the greenhouse or 745 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,759 Speaker 1: you know, whatever is better than just hitting just the 746 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,680 Speaker 1: you know, an open pavement area. Yeah, exactly. Again, what 747 00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:47,719 Speaker 1: you want to think is something that will make you 748 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: not stop all at once. Now, A big question here 749 00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:56,600 Speaker 1: is actually about water. There's disagreement about whether water is 750 00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:59,759 Speaker 1: a good choice. Hitting water at high speed is not 751 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,839 Speaker 1: like jumping off the high dive. Hitting water at high 752 00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:06,279 Speaker 1: speed will still cause massive injuries. It's often said that 753 00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:09,560 Speaker 1: hitting water after a great fall isn't that much different 754 00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:13,120 Speaker 1: from hitting concrete. Right. However, I will say, do a 755 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:15,719 Speaker 1: belly flop off the high dive, or actually, don't do 756 00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:17,480 Speaker 1: a belly flop off the hide, but don't just do 757 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:20,120 Speaker 1: a normal belly flop off of a normal diving board 758 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:23,200 Speaker 1: or a cannonball. What have you feel that smack of 759 00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,799 Speaker 1: water against your body and uh, and you you get 760 00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:28,839 Speaker 1: a sense of what some of the physics we're talking 761 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,080 Speaker 1: about here, because that that that smack can sting, and 762 00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:34,319 Speaker 1: we're talking a fall of like you know, four or 763 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:38,400 Speaker 1: five feet, yeah, exactly. Uh. And then also with water, 764 00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:42,240 Speaker 1: you had the risk that even if you survived the impact, 765 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,759 Speaker 1: you could be injured or knocked unconscious. And then you're 766 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:47,839 Speaker 1: at risk of drowning, right because you're in the water. Uh. 767 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:50,400 Speaker 1: If you have to hit water, there's also a question 768 00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:52,520 Speaker 1: of how best to orient your body. I guess we 769 00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:55,520 Speaker 1: can look at that along with the next question, which 770 00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:58,640 Speaker 1: is how to land, not where to land U. So 771 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:02,359 Speaker 1: there's conflicting advice and research indications here. There there are 772 00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:06,719 Speaker 1: very few clear takeaways except don't land on your head, right. 773 00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:11,120 Speaker 1: But to explore the discrepancies we've come across, so, Keppel's 774 00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,480 Speaker 1: article introduces the difficulty in knowing the best way to 775 00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:17,400 Speaker 1: position the body for impact. Uh. Kepple looks at in 776 00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:20,919 Speaker 1: nineteen forty two study in the journal war Medicine that 777 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,400 Speaker 1: seemed to be of the opinion that the best bet 778 00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:27,440 Speaker 1: is distribution of impact pressure across the body through quote 779 00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:30,680 Speaker 1: wide body impact. So that makes it sound like you'd 780 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:33,160 Speaker 1: want a belly flop off there, Maybe not belly flop, 781 00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:37,400 Speaker 1: but somehow distributed across the body, uh, you know, longitudinally. 782 00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,400 Speaker 1: Then again, there was a nineteen sixty three report by 783 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,600 Speaker 1: the Federal Aviation Agency that argued that survival is most 784 00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:46,560 Speaker 1: likely if you get into quote the classic sky diver's 785 00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:51,040 Speaker 1: landing stance feet together. Heals up flexed knees and hips. 786 00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:55,840 Speaker 1: Keppel argues that studies of people jumping from bridges indicate 787 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,840 Speaker 1: that the best way to survive hitting water is probably 788 00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,120 Speaker 1: what's known as the pence. So that's like feet first 789 00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:06,319 Speaker 1: knife like kind of entry. But obviously this doesn't always work. Uh. 790 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:08,760 Speaker 1: And he also points out the tradition of cliff divers 791 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:12,400 Speaker 1: of Acapulco who dive head first from great heights and 792 00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:15,680 Speaker 1: they lock their hands together with arms outstretched over their 793 00:42:15,719 --> 00:42:18,600 Speaker 1: heads to protect their heads from the impact with the water. 794 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,560 Speaker 1: He also advises for water landings quote clinch your butt. 795 00:42:23,520 --> 00:42:27,280 Speaker 1: So unfortunately it seems like a jumble of conflicting advice there, 796 00:42:27,520 --> 00:42:29,560 Speaker 1: and and it doesn't get any better with the other 797 00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:33,160 Speaker 1: sources we were looking at. Chisholm's article consults some experts 798 00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:36,319 Speaker 1: here that also are not in agreement. Uh. The the 799 00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:39,200 Speaker 1: the expert we mentioned earlier, at Alan points out that 800 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:42,400 Speaker 1: for some reason, some studies have found that human bodies 801 00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:45,520 Speaker 1: seem to be generally more tolerant of G forces in 802 00:42:45,560 --> 00:42:49,319 Speaker 1: particular directions, like NASA figured this out during some of 803 00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:52,440 Speaker 1: their experiments with test pilots in the nineteen sixties, that 804 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:55,880 Speaker 1: the body seems more tolerant of G forces pushing from 805 00:42:55,960 --> 00:42:57,920 Speaker 1: the front of the body to the back. This is 806 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:00,719 Speaker 1: referred to and you sort of pay sure this This 807 00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,880 Speaker 1: is referred to as eyeballs in G force as opposed 808 00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:08,000 Speaker 1: to eyeballs out up or down. Other types of forces 809 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:11,400 Speaker 1: such as eyeballs down are more traumatic to the body. 810 00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:13,799 Speaker 1: So I hadn't really thought about this, but but it 811 00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:16,439 Speaker 1: makes sense when you when you look at various um 812 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,839 Speaker 1: like especially like supersonic aircraft. You may, of course you're 813 00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:22,120 Speaker 1: gonna have a pilot position where they need to have 814 00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:24,480 Speaker 1: a forward facing view out of the airplane, but you 815 00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:26,319 Speaker 1: may have other roles in the plane that do not 816 00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,880 Speaker 1: require that, or even you know, do not allow a 817 00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:32,960 Speaker 1: direct forward facing view out of the plane. And in 818 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,799 Speaker 1: those cases you still have the uh, this particular individual 819 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:41,320 Speaker 1: will still be facing forward, Yeah, because apparently the body 820 00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,160 Speaker 1: is more tolerant of g forces that right. Um So, 821 00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:46,959 Speaker 1: given this consideration, it might seem like the best way 822 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:49,200 Speaker 1: for your body to absorb impact would be the land 823 00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:52,400 Speaker 1: on your back face up. But there's a problem with that, 824 00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:54,080 Speaker 1: which is that it seems like this would be more 825 00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:56,919 Speaker 1: likely to generate a harder impact on the head, which 826 00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:59,120 Speaker 1: is exactly what you don't want to do, to say 827 00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:00,920 Speaker 1: nothing of the spine. I mean, it's almost like we're 828 00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,280 Speaker 1: not designed for this kind of impact at all, exactly. 829 00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:05,400 Speaker 1: You know, it's it's bad no matter how you do it. 830 00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:09,239 Speaker 1: There one last source they look at here is the 831 00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:12,760 Speaker 1: Chisholm mentions, a study by the Highway Safety Research Institute 832 00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:16,320 Speaker 1: from ninety which looked at over a hundred case studies 833 00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:19,920 Speaker 1: of fall victims, and note that these were short distance falls, 834 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:23,319 Speaker 1: probably not terminal velocity falls. But the study found that 835 00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:27,960 Speaker 1: landing feet first gives you the best survival odds. So basically, 836 00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:32,279 Speaker 1: here we've heard almost every different kind of possible recommendation 837 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,200 Speaker 1: for how to orient the body for landing except land 838 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:36,960 Speaker 1: on your head. You don't want to land on your head. 839 00:44:37,480 --> 00:44:39,200 Speaker 1: I would have to say that this seems like an 840 00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:42,560 Speaker 1: area in which the science is not settled. So when 841 00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: we were, you know, looking into this, I have to 842 00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:46,640 Speaker 1: say that the first thing that came into my mind 843 00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:49,719 Speaker 1: was the Kids in the Hall sketch. Really yeah, I 844 00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:52,799 Speaker 1: used to be a big Kids in the Hall of 845 00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:54,719 Speaker 1: fan just because it was you know, it was on 846 00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:56,920 Speaker 1: TV all the time, so I was always watching Kids 847 00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:58,600 Speaker 1: in the Hall. I loved Kids in the Hall. Oh yeah, 848 00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:01,880 Speaker 1: it's some some wonderful sketches in there. But there was 849 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:06,120 Speaker 1: a particular sketch from season one titled The Odds, during 850 00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:08,680 Speaker 1: which a bunch of sky divers are encountering just a 851 00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:13,319 Speaker 1: series of fatal parachute mishaps, one after the other, and 852 00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:17,879 Speaker 1: and finally, uh, Bruce McCulloch's character is the last one 853 00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:21,200 Speaker 1: left on the plane that that hasn't jumped, and he's 854 00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:25,080 Speaker 1: they're having a discussion with Mark McKinney's character, and Bruce's 855 00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:28,640 Speaker 1: character begins discussing the odds of this series of terrible 856 00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:32,320 Speaker 1: jumps occurring the way they occurred, and he finally reaches 857 00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:39,360 Speaker 1: an illogical conclusion. So Bruce's character, you know, says, says, says, says, right, alright, alright, 858 00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:41,200 Speaker 1: you know it's like, okay, well, what are the odds 859 00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:43,960 Speaker 1: of all this happening? Where the odds of four individuals 860 00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:47,840 Speaker 1: plumbing to their deaths with one of them being on 861 00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:50,400 Speaker 1: the very first jump, two of them being twins, and 862 00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:52,879 Speaker 1: then one winning the lottery, Like all of these these 863 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:56,080 Speaker 1: odds would make it just just insurmountable. And then Mark's 864 00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:58,280 Speaker 1: character tells him what would be roughly sixty three million 865 00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:02,080 Speaker 1: to one, and Ruce's character says, quote, not good enough. 866 00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:05,600 Speaker 1: If these parachutes, I've been watching them defy the odds 867 00:46:05,640 --> 00:46:08,239 Speaker 1: all day. I'm jumping without one, and then he takes 868 00:46:08,239 --> 00:46:10,160 Speaker 1: off his parachute and he says, he asked, what are 869 00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:12,320 Speaker 1: the odds of a guy jumping from ten thousand feet 870 00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:15,799 Speaker 1: and hitting the pavement running? And Mark tells him two 871 00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,680 Speaker 1: to one, and then Bruce says, good, I'm off, and 872 00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:20,919 Speaker 1: he said, I'm feeling lucky. He jumps and he's saying 873 00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:23,360 Speaker 1: it's working, it's working, it's working, and then there's a 874 00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,480 Speaker 1: splat sound. Right. But so so, I have to say 875 00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:28,759 Speaker 1: I've never given the scenario a lot of scrutiny, but 876 00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:31,960 Speaker 1: I do think of it every single time someone discusses 877 00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:35,359 Speaker 1: hitting the ground running on the topic. I imagine um, 878 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,520 Speaker 1: Bruce McCulloch, um, you know, plumbting to his death with 879 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:41,200 Speaker 1: this optimism in mind. And I think that the kid 880 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:43,080 Speaker 1: is kind of a fun send up of our basic 881 00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:47,120 Speaker 1: inability to comprehend large numbers or or the odds of 882 00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:49,680 Speaker 1: any given scenario. Well, it makes me think about that 883 00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:51,560 Speaker 1: old thing where it's like, if you're in a in 884 00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:54,360 Speaker 1: a plane that's going down or an elevator that's falling, 885 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:57,600 Speaker 1: if you jump at the last second, then you'll be fine. Yeah, 886 00:46:57,640 --> 00:47:00,319 Speaker 1: that's not how it works, isn't you know? Not not 887 00:47:00,400 --> 00:47:02,040 Speaker 1: at all. And by the way I look to see, 888 00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:03,400 Speaker 1: I was thinking, Well, kids in the hall has been 889 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:05,640 Speaker 1: out a while, and people are always doing you know, 890 00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:08,799 Speaker 1: kind of interesting like physics based blog post or even 891 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,640 Speaker 1: full fledged papers exploring a particular topic. And I haven't 892 00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:17,400 Speaker 1: seen anybody you know, um myth bust uh this particular sketch. 893 00:47:17,520 --> 00:47:20,560 Speaker 1: Yet maybe I'm wrong. If I am wrong, someone please 894 00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:23,920 Speaker 1: send me in some myth busting on this. But I 895 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:27,479 Speaker 1: think the basic idea is hitting the ground running would 896 00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:29,880 Speaker 1: not work. And this line of thinking does fall in, 897 00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:31,880 Speaker 1: like you said, with the idea of well, could you 898 00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:33,640 Speaker 1: jump out of a crashing plane right before it hits 899 00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:37,320 Speaker 1: the ground and survive? And this question, these questions in general, 900 00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:39,880 Speaker 1: tend to ignore the fact that you're not merely a 901 00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:43,400 Speaker 1: board of falling plane. You're falling with the plane, and 902 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:45,839 Speaker 1: if you jump off the plane, you're still falling at 903 00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:50,120 Speaker 1: the same pace with the same acceleration. Especially at high speeds. 904 00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:53,879 Speaker 1: There's virtually no scenario in which the jump is going 905 00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,600 Speaker 1: to make, you know, a huge difference. But when I 906 00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:59,600 Speaker 1: was looking around about this, I did run across another 907 00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:03,440 Speaker 1: account of survival from a fall of a great height. Uh, 908 00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:06,680 Speaker 1: similar scenario to some of the ones we've discussed already. Uh. 909 00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:08,719 Speaker 1: It was the It's the story of two thousand six 910 00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:11,920 Speaker 1: survival story of the twenty five year old experienced experienced 911 00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:15,000 Speaker 1: jumper who encountered a series of shoot malfunctions from a 912 00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,440 Speaker 1: fifteen thousand foot jump and uh, there there's an interview 913 00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:24,640 Speaker 1: with this guy on Vice. Uh and basically he tried everything. Um, 914 00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:27,000 Speaker 1: you know, he had a very logical fall, you know, 915 00:48:27,480 --> 00:48:29,880 Speaker 1: where he's like, he's deploying the first shoot doesn't work. Okay, 916 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:33,480 Speaker 1: deploying the second shoot, uh does not work. And uh, 917 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:36,240 Speaker 1: and then he kind of makes a rushed logical peace 918 00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:38,680 Speaker 1: with death at that point where he's like, Okay, I've 919 00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:41,359 Speaker 1: done everything, I can do, nothing else I can do. 920 00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,920 Speaker 1: I'm I'm probably gonna die. And he essentially goes limp 921 00:48:45,280 --> 00:48:48,640 Speaker 1: and falls and impacts in a small BlackBerry bush, like 922 00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:51,280 Speaker 1: not a huge bush, but you know, a fairly small 923 00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,080 Speaker 1: one by his description. He ends up shattering his left 924 00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:58,960 Speaker 1: foot like really badly, but he survived. He didn't hit 925 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:02,160 Speaker 1: the ground vertically but and so so the impact was 926 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:05,279 Speaker 1: you know, deflected through his body. And in the Vice 927 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:08,640 Speaker 1: interview he recommended his recommendations for falling, which he said, 928 00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:13,640 Speaker 1: ultimately he he didn't have any logical um strategy in mind. 929 00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:16,120 Speaker 1: He just was like, Okay, I guess I'm hitting the ground. 930 00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:20,399 Speaker 1: But he said in retrospect he would say don't tense up, 931 00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:22,319 Speaker 1: you know, in the same and then we see this 932 00:49:22,560 --> 00:49:25,040 Speaker 1: in discussion of car crashes as well, like like don't 933 00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:27,920 Speaker 1: tense your body for the impact if if you at 934 00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:31,080 Speaker 1: all have any say so in this. And then also 935 00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:33,520 Speaker 1: land in a shrub or a tree if you can, 936 00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:36,279 Speaker 1: which falls in line with some of the advice and 937 00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:39,520 Speaker 1: uh analysis we looked at already. Yeah, well i'd say 938 00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:42,320 Speaker 1: top lane takeaway today. Don't jump out of an airplane 939 00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:44,960 Speaker 1: without a parachute. Don't fall out of an airplane without 940 00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:47,160 Speaker 1: a parachute if you can help it. If you are 941 00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:50,279 Speaker 1: in the scenario, see if you can land in like 942 00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:53,560 Speaker 1: some snow and try not to land on your head. Right. 943 00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:55,560 Speaker 1: And as for the kids in the Hall method, I 944 00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:57,920 Speaker 1: guess you know, the jury is still out, but that's 945 00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:00,839 Speaker 1: probably not going to be your best strategy either. All right, 946 00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:03,279 Speaker 1: So there you have it. Uh. The fun thing about 947 00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:05,759 Speaker 1: this episode is that I know we have some skydivers 948 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:08,080 Speaker 1: out there. We have to have some skydivers. We've heard 949 00:50:08,120 --> 00:50:11,560 Speaker 1: from skydivers before. All right, Well, now it's really there 950 00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:14,200 Speaker 1: time to shine because I wanna you know, we want 951 00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:16,400 Speaker 1: to hear anything just about your your your thoughts on 952 00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:19,440 Speaker 1: this particular topic. Certainly if you know anybody who has 953 00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:21,360 Speaker 1: a survival story like this or app on in yourself 954 00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:22,640 Speaker 1: to share, we would love to hear that. But just 955 00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:26,080 Speaker 1: in general, like your your thoughts on on the you know, 956 00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:30,799 Speaker 1: the feeling, the sensation of of of descending through the 957 00:50:30,840 --> 00:50:33,319 Speaker 1: air at these these great speeds and with these great, 958 00:50:33,480 --> 00:50:36,560 Speaker 1: great distances. What is that like? We would love to 959 00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:38,279 Speaker 1: hear from you. What does it feel like to hit 960 00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:41,560 Speaker 1: terminal velocity when you freefall? Yeah? Where do you fall 961 00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:44,040 Speaker 1: in on? Our various descriptions of you know, feeling weighted 962 00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:47,840 Speaker 1: versus feeling weightless. In the meantime, check out stuff to 963 00:50:47,840 --> 00:50:49,239 Speaker 1: Blow your Mind dot com. That's some other ship the 964 00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:51,800 Speaker 1: wets where you'll find all the episodes of this show. 965 00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:54,719 Speaker 1: If you want to chat about the show with other listeners, 966 00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,680 Speaker 1: there is a Facebook group called stuff to Blow Your 967 00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,680 Speaker 1: Mind discussion module and do a search on platform and 968 00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:03,680 Speaker 1: you will find it. And hey, if you want to 969 00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:06,200 Speaker 1: support the show, the best thing you can do is 970 00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:08,719 Speaker 1: rate and review us wherever you have the power to 971 00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:11,920 Speaker 1: do so, and make sure you have subscribed not only 972 00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,520 Speaker 1: to Stuftable your Mind, but Hey, the other podcast that 973 00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:17,560 Speaker 1: Joe and I also host, which is called Invention. That's 974 00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:21,440 Speaker 1: one episode a week. Each episode is a different invention, 975 00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:24,080 Speaker 1: or at least an episode on a particular invention or 976 00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:26,560 Speaker 1: a sort of a train of thought with inventions looking 977 00:51:26,600 --> 00:51:30,640 Speaker 1: at basically human techno history, all this weird technology that 978 00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:33,880 Speaker 1: that humans leave behind, and what it says about us, 979 00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:37,120 Speaker 1: what it says about human existence before the advent of 980 00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:40,760 Speaker 1: these different inventions. Huge things. As always to our excellent 981 00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:44,799 Speaker 1: audio producers Seth Nicholas Johnson and Maya Cole. If you'd 982 00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:46,640 Speaker 1: like to get in touch with us with feedback on 983 00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:48,920 Speaker 1: this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for 984 00:51:48,960 --> 00:51:51,440 Speaker 1: the future, or just to say hello, you can email 985 00:51:51,520 --> 00:52:03,760 Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 986 00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:05,720 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeart 987 00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:08,439 Speaker 1: Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, 988 00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:11,279 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 989 00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:23,719 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.