Why can’t humans safely jump out of a moving vehicle?

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It’s probably some inertia thing, but that shouldn’t prevent us from being able to land safely, should it?

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9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s because you are going the same speed as the car you are in. This means that you have a lot of momentum. But, unlike a car, you do not have any brakes.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The same thing that prevents you from safely landing after being shot out of a cannon. Jumping out of a moving car means you’re moving at the same speed as the car when you jump out. Human bodies aren’t designed to move at car speeds, but you need to get rid of that extra speed somehow, which in this case involves your bones breaking and your skin being cut up to get rid of that excess energy.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When you jump out of the car, you’re traveling the same speed the car was. And you don’t slow down meaningfully on your way down, so you touch the ground at very high speed.

The ground, typically, is hard, rough, and full of pointy sharp objects, all of which you hit at whatever the speed of your car was. That creates more than enough friction to rip your skin off, and the uneven force on your body can send you tumbling with enough force to break your bones and cause massive internal injury.

Anonymous 0 Comments

If you exit a car going 70mph, you would be moving at 70mph and the only thing slowing you down is the ground

Anonymous 0 Comments

It actually is possible. You just need to be wearing full motorcycle gear and then roll properly. And then you risk the injuries a motorcyclist gets in a crash.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Imagine the pain you feel when you are simply walking and then faceplant on your face.

Now, imagine that same exact fall but you aren’t walking and instead traveling at 10-20x the speed. You’re hitting the ground with a lot of energy.

Now people with training (and protecting clothing) can tuck and roll effectively. But it definitely not a normal skill everyone has.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Okay, imagine you’re going as fast as a car and then you suddenly stop (I guess you could also just imagine a car crash but that has some extra variables and stuff)

That’s what’s happening when you jump out of a moving car. You aren’t moving at your normal jumping speed, you’re moving at your normal jumping speed + the speed of the car

I guess inertia does *technically* play into it but it plays into most physics stuff like that so eh

Anonymous 0 Comments

The key is that you are moving at the same speed as the vehicle and therefore are very likely to hurt yourself if you jump into something moving a very different speed, like the ground. Doing so is basically like if you ran face first into a wall, except generally faster*.

If the vehicle is moving slow enough, it’s generally safe to jump off – say, a parade float**, which is moving at about a walking pace. You can also handle impact better on some surfaces, so jumping from a boat can normally be done at a higher speed, though the propeller may cause issues.

Misses would keep it from being “safe”, but you can jump between two vehicles moving at the same speed. Such stunts are not uncommon for movies and daredevils.

* Energy increases with the square of velocity, meaning that doubling the speed quadruples the damage. Hitting a wall at 5mph is will do a quarter the damage as hitting it at 10mph.

**The main danger here is that you fall and end up under the float, where the weight of the vehicle being on top of you would be the problem.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Friction is the enemy. Maybe grease up next time you leap from a moving vehicle? A little lard goes a long way!