So if you time it perfectly, the elevator would hit the floor but since you were in the air, you don’t feel the pressure of the landing. And then you wouldn’t get injured, right?
In: Physics
In theory you could reduce the impact slightly.
In reality it has been shown that the reduction in impact would be very slight, and not enough to offset the other issues of the technique.
For example you would need to time your jump with split second perfection, while in an enclosed box with no point of reference to tell you when the impact will be – jump slightly to early or late and you will increase the impact force and hurt yourself more.
By jumping you also risk striking the roof of the elevator as it stops from the impact, or getting thrown around if it doesn’t stop evenly.
Instead, lay flat on the floor so the impact is spread over your whole body rather than directed completely through your ankles and legs, and relax so that your body is loose and more able to absorb the impact without damage.
In reality it is also notable that it is incredibly unlikely an elevator will ever fail so critically. They come with multiple failsafes to prevent a fall such as multiple redundancy in the cables that support the car, automatic brakes to stop the car in the event of a free fall, and the fact that an enclosed lift shaft can actually act like an air piston to slow the car as it reaches the bottom.
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