....parachutes? I was reading about September Eleventh and they were saying that some of the people that jumped out the Twin Towers attempted to use these things as parachutes, but could not because they were pulled from their hands from the force of the wind from the drop.
shareThey tried something like that in episode 202.
shareIs that the one where they test skydiving/falling from the sky with an inflatable raft and landing safely? Or the one where a construction worker is holding a piece of plywood and a gust of wind sends him off the rood and he safely lands below?
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When logic and science aren't on your side, you always lose.
I have a sneaking suspicion there would serious reservations about testing a 9/11 themed myth. I can't imagine why.
The idiot formerly known as Heez.
but could not because they were pulled from their hands from the force of the wind from the drop.
Well...when your life literally depends on it, I think they could for four seconds, at least. :)
I hate IMDB's Signature policy...
Assuming the adrenaline hasn't worn off after they spent 45 minutes constructing the parachute!
The upper floors were 1,200-1,500 above ground. Assuming they jump from 1,200 feet and average 30 miles per hour, that's at least 27 seconds they'd have to hold on for.
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When logic and science aren't on your side, you always lose.
It would be very hard to hold on as you rightfully point out, but this could be fixed by strapping it to a solid belt or other thing perhaps. I would say that is not really where the big problem is.
Also black garbage bags are way to small first of all to span up a surface area of any value and they are also structurally questionable.
The problem is that the surface area would not be big enough to reduce the terminal velocity enough to make a relevant change. Let's say a rather small (60kg / 130lbs) but strong individual got hold of a strong table cloth being 2x3 meters (so large) and then attached two corners steadily on each side of him in his strong belt. Let's assume the tablecloth could then span up about 1.5m² (assuming a forth of the area can be used as stopping surface area is probably somewhat optimistic) of useable surface area and the drag coefficient was 1.1. The jumper then have to use his arm to keep assuring that the table cloth spans up as much of a surface area as possible which would be hard as a table cloth does not have any special structure or shape to automatically create a nice chute. This is why 1.5m² is perhaps a bit optimistic, but maybe with some decent fortune.
Anyway this would equate to a terminal velocity of
sqrt((2*60*9.81)/(1.1*1.5*1,25)) = 24m/s = 86km/h = 53-54mph
This is equivalent of a landing speed from a free fall from about 110-140 feet up depending on how the person are positioned in the air. But 24m/s is still much slower than the speed the person would had in free fall from one of the top floors which would likely had been around 51-54m/s for that person.
So even if you add all this superhero assumptions together it would still be a very, very rough landing, guaranteed to be lethal if landing on asphalt, unless you then add another factor on the ground like a huge mattress.
So with a small person and a steady attachment of a huge table cloth on something that can hold it like a super-thick belt on heavy-duty working pants, assisted by people on the ground with huge mattresses it could had been survivable I would argue, but it's certainly a stretch of what was reasonable at the scenario they were in.