A question that has been bugging me.

[Henock]

Imagine if you had a friend that was goofing around on a high (30 feet) ledge and you were standing at the bottom of it. Now, imagine he loses his balance and falls to the floor. Since you are at the bottom you decide to push him as hard as you can to the side before he hits the ground. Would that break his fall completely, or at least somewhat? Sorry I am not a physics buff so a little help would be great.

I'll try and draw it: (mind you the drawing shows him falling on top of you but imagine being two steps to the side)

Him
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V
You ---> <--- This would be roughly where he lands.

Odd question I know, but I was just wondering.

[Tradewind]

In practical application, a lateral force is unlikely to reduce his velocity downward in any significant or measurable way. So, no not really.

On paper, gravity is not affected by sideways motion. An object dropped will hit the ground at the same time as an object moving laterally.

[Seezer]

Imagine if you had a friend that was goofing around on a high (30 feet) ledge and you were standing at the bottom of it. Now, imagine he loses his balance and falls to the floor. Since you are at the bottom you decide to push him as hard as you can to the side before he hits the ground. Would that break his fall completely, or at least somewhat? Sorry I am not a physics buff so a little help would be great.

I'll try and draw it: (mind you the drawing shows him falling on top of you but imagine being two steps to the side)

Him
|
|
|
|
V
You ---> <--- This would be roughly where he lands.

Odd question I know, but I was just wondering.

You would never pull it off. He would either crush you, or you'd completely miss. He's going to be traveling pretty fuckin fast from 30 feet.

[chazus]

You would have to push him with enough force to alter his downward descent. A human doesn't have the capability to do that. Now, if he fell off, and you were driving a car at say... 40mph, and hit him just before he hit the ground, yes, you'd break his 'fall'. You'd also kill him in the process by changing his direction and speed so violently.

Short answer: No, you cannot push him and break his fall
Long answer: His fall CAN be broken by having him 'pushed' by something, but it would likely be more damaging than the fall itself to do so.

[Auxis]

While I'm not expert, I watched a video on YouTube where they were talking about when Spiderman catches his gal when she's falling from a skyscraper.

Apparently according to them, she's likely to explode upon him catching her.

[Arkenaw]

Horizontal velocity doesn't affect vertical velocity, a ball rolling off a table will land at the same time and with the same force and one that is dropped. Or something, it's been a long time since I took physics.

[Rucati]

While I'm not expert, I watched a video on YouTube where they were talking about when Spiderman catches his gal when she's falling from a skyscraper.

Apparently according to them, she's likely to explode upon him catching her.

Hey I saw that video too, was interesting.

But yeah, like others have said, it wouldn't be possible. At best you'd probably get yourself killed by standing in the wrong place because he'd be going so far it'd be hard to judge.

Now, if you were like the Flash you could run and get a trampoline, and then you could save your friend that way.

Horizontal velocity doesn't affect vertical velocity, a ball rolling off a table will land at the same time and with the same force and one that is dropped. Or something, it's been a long time since I took physics.

This is a good example, but not actually accurate in this situation. To apply that to this situation it would be saying if you dropped both balls at the same time, but you pushed one before it hit the ground while it was falling. If it's little marbles falling or whatever, I'm pretty sure it would actually impact the speed enough to be a measurable difference. With humans from 30ft up though, not so much, you'd still die a horribly painful (or instant and painless) death.

[stuck4cash]

You would have to push him with enough force to alter his downward descent. A human doesn't have the capability to do that. Now, if he fell off, and you were driving a car at say... 40mph, and hit him just before he hit the ground, yes, you'd break his 'fall'. You'd also kill him in the process by changing his direction and speed so violently.

Short answer: No, you cannot push him and break his fall
Long answer: His fall CAN be broken by having him 'pushed' by something, but it would likely be more damaging than the fall itself to do so.

Not really, his fall would be broken by either hitting the car (from the top) OR hitting the ground. You pushing him would just be adding salt to his (deadly) wound.

The only really way to do it would be cushion his descent and slowly change his direction. Imagine a giant (like probably most of the 30 feet) quarter pipe.

[chazus]

Horizontal velocity doesn't affect vertical velocity, a ball rolling off a table will land at the same time and with the same force and one that is dropped. Or something, it's been a long time since I took physics.

...Yes and no.

If you slowed time down to 'observe' what was going on, the moment you touched your friend, some of his downward energy would be transferred to you. Since you're on the ground, you can't go down any further. Assuming that he didn't crush you in the process, you COULD change his direction with enough force, thus breaking his fall. In this case, a car pushing him wouldn't be crushed, and could accurately change his direction with enough force.

[Tradewind]

...Yes and no.

If you slowed time down to 'observe' what was going on, the moment you touched your friend, some of his downward energy would be transferred to you. Since you're on the ground, you can't go down any further. Assuming that he didn't crush you in the process, you COULD change his direction with enough force, thus breaking his fall. In this case, a car pushing him wouldn't be crushed, and could accurately change his direction with enough force.

That's why I edited my post to include "practical" application lol. There might be some deceleration but it would be pretty much insignificant. Probably break your wrists in the act as well as their momentum would be significant.

But a truly lateral/perpendicular force (90 degrees) applied to a falling object won't slow its descent. There would have to be an upward force as well to counter-act gravity.

[Mormolyce]

If we imagine your friend is instead a solid body with a simple centre of mass? Like say, a bowling ball.

And you kung-fu kick it exactly horizontally (ie perpendicular to the direction it's falling - straight down)?

Then the two force vectors are independent, his vertical speed is unaffected by you giving him some horizontal speed.

In reality I don't quite know how it'd work, I doubt you could push him out of the way with any kind of force while not having him land right on top of you anyway. Which yeah, would break his fall. And maybe your spine?

[Surfd]

Practcal application says no: if you push him sideways, you have not altered his downward momentum but simply added an independant sideways momentum. If you pushed him, he would basicly now hit the ground just as hard, but also roll sideways with equal momentum to your push.

[Deleted]

If you push him, wouldn't that break your arms? His falling speed would be pretty damn fast.

[Henock]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, really interesting answers!

I'm starting to think that my buddy wouldn't make it. Even if we assume that I had the reaction time and strength to push him. Apparently he would be travelling at 120/mph. :/

[Deleted]

The best you can do, if you are buff and want to risk a bad injury is try to grab him with your arms, with your legs slightly flexed, and then acompany the fall downwards, reducing the impact. This might or might not tear your arms out of their sockets.

No force you exert sideways is going to help him, unless you direct him towards a cushion.

[Rucati]

Practcal application says no: if you push him sideways, you have not altered his downward momentum but simply added an independant sideways momentum. If you pushed him, he would basicly now hit the ground just as hard, but also roll sideways with equal momentum to your push.

It would actually slow him down (due to friction) but it'd be such a small amount it wouldn't have any practical application, like you said.

That being said, causing him to roll could actually have a positive impact on the overall outcome, depending on how he hit the ground. Granted, from 30 ft up it probably won't make a *huge* difference, but it could in theory. You can jump off a 2 story building and be perfectly fine if you know how to roll properly when you hit the ground. Granted, if you don't know how to roll properly then you're going to be in a lot of pain.

[Mormolyce]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, really interesting answers!

I'm starting to think that my buddy wouldn't make it. Even if we assume that I had the reaction time and strength to push him. Apparently he would be travelling at 120/mph. :/

Yeah the one thing we can say for sure is your buddy is a pancake. Only remaining question: are you also a pancake?

[Henock]

Yeah the one thing we can say for sure is your buddy is a pancake. Only remaining question: are you also a pancake?

Nope, with the information I gathered here he is going to hit the ground.

[chazus]

He's going to hit the ground no matter what. Even if you 'broke' his fall by pushing him to the side with enough force to change his direction, and not injure your self magically in the process, he would then continue the rest of his fall a few feet.

THEORETICALLY, to have him survive the fall, you could run at him at a sufficient speed with a trampoline held at an angle, to bounce him at a right angle, and with planets aligning luck, have him catch himself in a run to the point where he could skid to a stop, much like a parachuter can land in a run or roll.

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Also, for the record, a 30 foot fall may not kill him at all, even if he hit the ground unassisted. It's VERY possible, but also entirely possible he'll only break his everything. People have fallen from greater heights and not only survived, but walked away.

[Tradewind]

He's going to hit the ground no matter what. Even if you 'broke' his fall by pushing him to the side with enough force to change his direction, and not injure your self magically in the process, he would then continue the rest of his fall a few feet.

THEORETICALLY, to have him survive the fall, you could run at him at a sufficient speed with a trampoline held at an angle, to bounce him at a right angle, and with planets aligning luck, have him catch himself in a run to the point where he could skid to a stop, much like a parachuter can land in a run or roll.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, for the record, a 30 foot fall may not kill him at all, even if he hit the ground unassisted. It's VERY possible, but also entirely possible he'll only break his everything. People have fallen from greater heights and not only survived, but walked away.

A parachuter has a parachute to slow their descent though :P Just bouncing them sideways won't cut it. If it was at an angle that also introduced an upward force it might work though.