Why do You Have to ‘Get Down’ and Drop on the Floor During a Bombing?
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When bombs explode there are two major causes of injury. The first is the pressure wave caused by the sudden movement of energy moving the air. The second is shrapnel and debris that shreds people that is moved by the shockwave. Bombs send their shockwave and shrapnel/debris in all directions from the point of explosion. Getting low to the ground means most of that passes over you and you are less likely to be hit.
Shrapnel from bombs tend to rise.
Getting low will allow more of the shrapnel to pass above you.
Covering your ears will help protect them from the wave of force.
The most dangerous part of most bombs is not the shockwave, it’s shrapnel. In fact, most bombs that are designed to kill people are designed to create as much shrapnel as possible. It’s like gluing a thousand guns together pointed in all directions and shooting them all at the same time.
Now, consider your profile as you are being shot at. If you are facing them or turned completely away from them, you are presenting your whole body as a target. If you were to turn side-on, you have a narrower profile and are a smaller target.
Lying down with your feet towards the bomb presents the *smallest* profile. As the shrapnel flies around, the *only* target it can really hit is your feet. That’s not exactly a *pleasant* experience, certainly, but it’s better than getting shrapnel in your chest or eyes or brain. Lying face down also means that *if* the shrapnel is coming from a higher angle for some reason, like an air burst bomb or it ricochets off of something above you, you’re still protecting your soft, fleshy belly and your eyes. Still not ideal to get hit, but the *most* vulnerable parts of you are mostly as protected as they can be.
And if it *isn’t* an air burst bomb, it’s likely that the shrapnel and the shockwave can be reflected by the ground and lose a lot of energy right at ground level. So the shrapnel is marginally less dangerous. It’s not much, but, hey, you’re trying to survive a bomb so take what you can get. Plus, *any* obstructions will slow the shrapnel down or block it, and because gravity is a thing the vast majority of obstructions begin at ground level and end somewhere above it. So dropping down to ground level gives you the best chance of having something between you and the bomb.
Shrapnel travels horizontally. The less vertical space you’re occupying, the less likely you are to be hit by it. That’s also less surface area for shockwaves to act upon, protecting you from the blast itself. Plus, there’s more cover down low, and you’re not in a horizontal trajectory from the windows for glass shards to fly.
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