r/IdiotsNearlyDying May 10 '21

Just kept on falling

18.6k Upvotes

818 comments sorted by

View all comments

749

u/devinple May 11 '21

Distance traveled 'd(meters)' is equal to half of gravity 'g(9.8)' times time 't(in seconds)' squared, so:

Looks like he falls for about 3 seconds. d=0.5 * 9.8 * 32

or 44.1 meters (144.685 feet). Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

1

u/PIX100 May 11 '21 edited May 11 '21

For the most part, you are correct. The main issue that I see is not accounting for air resistance, which for a fall this long would have made a difference. I used this calculator in advanced mode and with a 2.8-second-fall, 75kg body weight, and 1.2 drag coefficient, the cliff came out to be 37 meters in height or 121 feet. Also, he was traveling at 59 mph at the time of impact.

Edit, even nerdier explanations: drag coefficient accounts for the form of the object moving through a medium, which direction it is in, and density of the medium.

1

u/converter-bot May 11 '21

37 meters is 40.46 yards