What is Digg?146 Comments
- AnteChronos, on 10/10/2007, -0/+189"Could you Jump off a Bridge..."
Only if all of my friends were doing it. - archer104, on 10/10/2007, -1/+135"If you ever fall off the Sears Tower, just go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will try to catch you because, hey, free dummy."
-Jack Handey - diggleague, on 10/10/2007, -2/+57The author can now add Jake Bown as further proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOKhe9k4eg4 - MasterThief117, on 10/10/2007, -0/+32"Hey, I beat my loogie"
- cptshamrock, on 10/10/2007, -0/+32They busted the myth that the train station exploding softened his fall just before the impact, not the fact the story is false. The story is confirmed and true.
- Plant11, on 10/10/2007, -1/+31no, YOU'RE an idiot. HA!
- MadN, on 10/10/2007, -0/+25I have tried to get MythBusters to test how much liquor it takes for Kari to remove her clothes on live TV.
Still waiting.... - AltOpt, on 10/10/2007, -1/+25Rambo did a back flip off a cliff, and landed into trees. Then killed a guy by throwing a stone at a helicopter. Had a few scratches after that, but nothing a little suturing wouldn't fix.
- badave, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22Mythbusters isn't always right either, though they are typically on the money. They often can't account for chance happenings or produce exactly similar circumstances, and have to resort to lab science instead to reproduce the sometimes irreproducible.
You could take poker as an example. Getting a royal flush is possible, but if you were conduct it the mythbusters way, it would be three or four experiments and then, when a royal flush didn't come up in one of your hands, you would say the myth that someone has ever had a royal flush was busted. This is wrong of course, and so might some of the mythbusters experiments neglect the really random off chance of something actually mythological happening. - theeEqualizer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17Mmmm actually they were vacillating between busted and inconclusive. The myth was that Magee fell through the skylight at the exact instant that an explosion detonated in the train station and that he was at just the right distance from said detonation to break his fall sufficiently to leave him with relatively minor injuries. They didn't claim that it couldn't have happened, they just failed to replicate the phenomena.
- theeEqualizer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16Why? Has terminal velocity changed since March 11, 2005. Link? Thanks twrife, for keeping this thread supplied with stupid.
- bseay, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Jason Bourne did it.
- PopcornDave, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15If you're stupid enough to try it, then wear Levi's. Apparently denim absorbs the shock better than other clothing. However you're still probably going to bust up your internal organs when you hit the water. And break some bones at the very least.
Plus you're going to really ***** up traffic on the bridge. - infiniphunk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14I fell out of bed today and nearly cracked my head open.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+137 rawstory frontpage stories a day, 5 thinkprogress, 3 one sided anticop stories per day, 20 impeach bush, and 5345 Ron Paul stories, and THIS is the one you take issue with?
Its interesting, and besides thestraightdope.com is an awsome site. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12No, YOU go figure. WE'RE not the ones who jumped off a bridge.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -6/+17"ALL Golden Gate Bridge jumpers (survivors) changed their minds pretty much as soon as their feet left the concrete" and they know this how? Did they interview them on the way down? Besides the few that survived because they wanted to, I think most of them we're pretty dedicated to dying, thus the JUMPING OFF THE ***** GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE.
- yahoofrom, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11i'd hit it.
- pizzler, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9There was that one young guy somewhat recently that was skydiving and neither of his parachutes would open and he actually lived to tell the story....it was about 6-9 months ago....so it is possible..here is a site with info on free falling... http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffresearch.html
- useful, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9go to the pool at your local university and jump off the 10 meter, make sure your feet are flat when you hit and then tell me you can survive that fall
you might want someone watching you because if you bellyflop you'll probably pass out and drown - Rockmaninoff, on 10/10/2007, -6/+15Dan Brown would have you believe otherwise...
Honestly, a character falling from a helicopter hundreds of feet in the air and landing in water safely? I guess there's a reason they call it "fiction." - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8You either think the golden gate bridge is less than 8 years old, or you suck really bad at math.
- wazted, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7This bloke didn't land on water, just 6ft-high thicket of brambles and wild shrubbery and survived 12,000ft fall
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=435377&in_page_id=1&in_page_id=1&expand=true
(Pics and links on this URL too)
Bloody Lucky!! - ldkronos, on 10/10/2007, -3/+10Sorry, but that is a very common thing. MANY people who attempt suicide and survive later say that as soon as they passed that one point (feet leaving the bridge, wrist cut open, pills swallowed, etc) they realized what a mistake it was.
- brhad56, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I think the way Jake Brown landed about as best as he could have. Feet first, legs bent, and rolling from ass to head. Impact to feet was so hard that his shoes popped off. better shoes than his face.
- haski, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7No, they didn't.
Wikipedia is your friend:
"A variation of this story was tested in an episode of Mythbusters. In the episode, the crew tested the legend that an airman fell out of a plane and was saved by the shockwave of a bomb exploding through a glass train station. The version of the story tested showed that it wasn't possible to survive the fall."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee - david76, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5It's not about surface tension at all. It's about the change in density between the air and the water, which results in a rapid deceleration. It's this rapid change in velocity that causes problems.
I think it was my high school calc teacher who used to say "It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the bottom." - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5You < smart.
- suxmonkey, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7I jumped off a bridge, fractured my sixth cervical vertibrae and did survive So yes, sure, you can 9 out of 10 end up crippled but some of us get lucky. Go figure.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5In the documentary The Bridge (about people who commit suicide off the Golden Gate), one guy survives his jump, intentionally trying to land a certain way due to a change of heart.
- ElectricDoodie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Mythbusters are usually right when they prove or disprove things, but you can't take their word for absolutely everything. They have a whole episode dedicated to fixing previous myths that they concluded busted, yet hundreds of angry viewers set them letters saying that it was possible, and that they could prove it. The Mythbusters asked these people to come on to the show and prove them wrong. One of these myths was that an arrow, shot at the right angle, could crack another arrow perfectly down the middle, that has already been shot onto a target. Kinda like they do in movies. They used machines and a bunch of other techniques, like getting real close, but said the myth was busted because the arrow wobbles once it's shot. A man went on the show and did it in like 2 tries.
- benjaoming, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4This story about a pilot parachuting from 44,000 feet into a thunderstorm is pretty intense, too...
http://www.aero.com/publications/parachutes/9610/pc1096.htm - V1ncent, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I respect no author that does not try to answer the questions he poses, himself.
- the_blob, on 10/10/2007, -5/+9You read wrong, there is at least one woman, that survived her first jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, but succeeded in committing her suicide with the second
- HenvY, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovic - survived a fall from 35k ft after her plane was bombed.
- Jeebugorn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4my platoon sergeant when i was in germany "burned in" during his last jump at airborne school. they jumped at 1200 feet and his chutes didnt open right...soooo, he burned in. he lived, and only messed his knees up a little bit (and by a little bit, i mean they are ***** up but compared to what could have happened i'd say it was a minor injury). also, he could still run faster than most of the guys in my platoon.
- Rocketbird, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Really?? This whole time I thought snow was a form of sugar!!
- fusama, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4mythbusters busted that one. I'm pretty sure its not an issue of surface tension at all.
- eschompthis, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5you obviously havent heard of the documentary movie called The Bridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8muNsj1oUpY
- sdcarter, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Darwinism at work.
- esmo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3If it's a really random chance, that means that you are unable to replicate it at will. What does this mean when you are jumping off a bridge? Yeah, you'll probably die.
Mythbusters also tried breaking the water surface, but at that speed a liquid won't be displaced quickly enough to slow the fall sufficiently. - jamdogg, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3yeah why didn't they post the updated effects of jumping off a bridge?
- innocentsinner, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4What if you threw a rock or something at the water before you hit? Would it do enough to break the surface tension or would that not matter at all?
- Xspire, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3This article is older than hell. Still I dugg it up to give props to the submitter. Cuz I found this article back when it was new but didn't know about digg at the time. :(
- crossmr, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3{{citation needed}}
- Sacrifice, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Don't forget this guy: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DyVppfDhrVc
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Either way he's an idiot.
- Useight, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2No he's not, it looks like he just misread and thought it said, "1,200 people since 2003", not "1,200 people as of 2003". If that was the figure between 2003 and 2007, his calculations would have been pretty good.
- nogami, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Didn't they have the dummy do an uncontrolled fall into the water?
It would be interesting to see what would happen if the dummy was posed absolutely perfectly in a head-down vertical position, with arms extended in a diving position (ie: with perfect diving form, could you survive - and, how deep would you go upon entry)? - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Since when were either Mythbusters or Wiki reliable sources?
Believe me, try handling in a paper that cites Wiki or asking Mythbusters for expert testimony in court. Go on, you'll be a laughing stock. -
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