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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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.

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