what makes water dangerous to jump into at extreme heights?
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If you’re fast enough when hitting the water, water doesn’t have time to get out of the way completely before you submerge. Which means, you essentially are hitting the water, instead of breaking into it. Jumping from high up into anything that won’t get out of your way is the recipe for a bad time.
It’s the speed. Water tension is pretty strong so if you hit it fast enough the water won’t move out of the way quick enough make it’s sort of a solid place to hit. While concrete won’t move water will only move so fast.
Once you are moving fast enough the water can “get out of the way” quickly enough when you hit it so it is basically like smacking concrete.
Water doesn’t move very easily. When you hit it, significant energy is needed to move it out of the way to make a “human-sized hole” for you. Human bones aren’t strong enough to transfer that much energy without breaking unless they are able to do it over a long distance, as a streamlined high diver might have the skills to execute.
So hypothetically, if it was raining and it just so happens that a water droplet broke the tension just as you were about to hit the surface, you’d be okay?
This was my real question haha but felt like it needed a precursor first
Did you ever take chemistry in High School and the teacher says “when you dont know, just write hydrogen bonds”
Well… Hydrogen bonds
mgh = mv^2 /2; v = ✓2gh
The greater height, the more velocity.
F=ma. The faster you hit water, the more acceleration it needs to move away, the greater force you should apply on it with your body.
Tl;dr: at some point water works like a concrete wall.
Ever do a belly flop into a pool? Probably stung a bit. Now imagine hitting the water from way higher. Even if you weren’t trying to do a belly flop, but instead used the smallest profile possible (feet first, arms at your sides). It’s still gonna hurt some.
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