If you where in a falling lift and jumped at the last second before it hit the ground would you save yourself?

Question

would you die or live?

Answer 1

No to the first question.

As to the second, nearly everyone who does not jump survives.  I am not sure if you would die because you jumped.

Answer 2

The speed is relative, if the elevator dropped at 20 miles an hour (it would be more ) then you would have to move upwards at a speed of over 20mph to counteract the fall.

then all you have to do is avoid the crushing weight of the ceiling dropping onto you with a relative speed of around 45 mph.

Your speed in a jump would be around 4-5mph so no.

You would'nt just die, you'd splash.

Answer 3

it really depends on how far you fell. the longer the distance the more you would accelerate. a short distance might just break your legs. a little farther and then it would affect more body parts.

The good news is that being in a box,,,the sudden stop would come as a surprise. you would not be aware of when all this would happen.

You might not even realize that anything was happening.

But you must know that all elevators are equipped with a mechanical automatic brake system. Once an elevator reaches a predetermined speed the brakes automaticaly  switch on and lock in place.

Answer 4

You would have the same odds as the next person that did it, it would 50/50.......................

Answer 5

No. Your body would still be going at the rate that the lift was falling. It is the same concept as jumping up in a moving bus. You don't wind up in the back of the bus because you are still moving at the same speed as the bus. It is physics. I don't understand the laws. I can only abide by them. lol  :o)

Answer 6

They did this on mythbusters last year.  doesn't make a difference, and the timing would have to be spot-on, anyway.

Answer 7

Well if this happened to you, you could try it to give you something to do before you die. My big question is  how do you know when to jump? You cant see out so its a big guess. Another thing is your family could sue the h**l out of the lift company for the emergency brakes not kicking in.

Answer 8

No - simply because you would still be travelling at the same speed as the elevator when you hit the ground.

Answer 9

This is the perfect time for exercising the "2nd form vector mathematics"

If the lift is falling at (for example) 32'/second (downwards) then you will die when it hits the bottom of the shaft.

If you jump just before impact you will achive a vertical velocity (upwards) of about 2'/second, if you're lucky.

Remember that you are already descending at 32'/second.

You must now subtract your upward velocity from that of the lift to give your actual velocity at the time when you hit the bottom of the shaft. This will give you a net velocity of 30'/second (downwards). You would be very unlikely to survive an impact at that speed.

If by some chance you manage to achive an upward velcolity of 32'/second just as the floor of the lift reaches the bottom your net velocity will be 0. Unfortunately, the roof of the lift will still be travelling downwards at 32'/second so it's still "strawberry jam" time.

Sorry.

Answer 10

smashed into a bloody mass

Answer 11

You cannot jump up from a platform that is falling because your legs will not have any surface to push off of.  So you might want to flap your arms real fast, LOL

Answer 12

Apparently the people who clean office windows, in those big external cradles, have training.  Lie flat on your stomach and protect your head.  I guess this distributes the shock over your whole body and not just a few square inches.

Answer 13

The end result would be exactly the same as falling the same distance without a lift.

Dead.

Answer 14

You wouldn't be able to jump as the thing you are jumping from wouldn't offer any resistance.  It would be like being suspended from a rope and trying to jump off of two bricks tied to your feet.  I've always wondered what is the best position to be in when the lift does land and also if you had to jump out of a high building.

Answer 15

no

Answer 16

They tried this on Mythbusters & found that you would still hit the ground with much the same force, only a fraction of a second later!

Answer 17

mythbusters did this on tv and they came to the conclusion that no you would not survive......and i'm not going to try and prove them wrong!!

Answer 18

Hypothetically if this could happen you would die, but lifts are designed with centrifugal friction brakes, so that if all the cables snapped and the lift plummeted to earth the friction brakes would stop the lift before it hit the bottom of the shaft.