What's the maximum height you can fall and still survive?

Question

Well, maybe break an arm or leg in the process, but how far can someone fall over land before they'd end up dead?

Let's just pretend they fell off the top of building or something... so... how far can they fall before they get paralyzed from the waist down or get killed?

Thank you!

Answer 1

depends on what you hit, where you hit it, and how fast you were going when you hit the ground. and even that doesn't guarantee death. For some people, their terminal velocities are low, so their momentum/kinetic energy becomes constant. If that momentum is not enough to kill the person, they could fall from any height because they can only reach terminal velocity

Answer 2

I've heard that anything over 50ft, and you're a gonner

Answer 3

Too many variables to consider such as weight, surface you have fall into, clothes you are wearing, wind, etc.

There was a story about a lady who fall from a plane with no parachute but still survive and able to recuperate. I read it from Guinness book of world record.

Now, how much further I sure don't know.

Answer 4

Telephone and power companies tell their employees who work on poles that a fall from 40 feet or more will 'probably' kill them.  That is most likely the number you are seeking.

However, Gudy is right.  The biggest factors are how you land...   on your feet, on your head, on your stomach...

And what you land on.

My eldest half-brother (twenty years my senior) was a tail-gunner in a Northrop Black Widow in World War Two.  At one point they had to "ditch" while flying over the Alps.  His parachute didn't open.

He hit a sloping mountainside at a steep angle which curved and flattened as it went down, slowing him "gradually".  He said he also hit a lot of small tree branches, but no large ones, as well as a lot of underbrush.

The net effect was that he was very sore and bruised all over, but didn't have a single broken bone.

He said as he was falling and the chute didn't open, he was sure he was going to die, but somehow he was able to get up and walk away afterwards.

Answer 5

there is alot of variables involved. there are lots of stories since airplanes were invented of people jumping out of airplanes where their parachutes failed and still survived.  sometimes science still can't answer how.  alot depends on the person, what they land on and how.  you can fall off a 6 foot ladder and die so is that the max or is it 600 feet?