So I recently watched "Warm bodies" with some of my friends. There was a scene where a the man jumps from a relatively high building while holding the girl in his arms, and lands into a pool, while keeping the girl on top, so as to "save" her from the impact.
One thing really bugged me ; Can someone actually save a person from a fall's impact by placing something under it ? I was thinking, since the sudden change in momentum usually kills people that fall from high altitudes, wouldn't that thing need to be REALLY soft (like a pile of pillows) so it could expand the time that the object's momentum change would take place, and actually reduce the force exerced on them from the ground ? (or water, but I wouldn't think that those two different states would really act differently when hit by something as fast as somebody falling to it's death)
I was also wondering something that my friend said about the subject when I asked him ; We were talking about a scenario where someone would jump off a 150m bridge with a bed underneath them, and what would happen to that person. I was thinking that since the bed couldn't really make that well of an "Impact time extender", the guy would still feel as if there were no bed under him (or in other words, I told him he'd die). But my friend kept insisting that the bed would actually "break" the surface tension of the water, and that the man would therefore suffer no great injury.
I'd be really gratefull if someone could help me out with this.
One thing really bugged me ; Can someone actually save a person from a fall's impact by placing something under it ? I was thinking, since the sudden change in momentum usually kills people that fall from high altitudes, wouldn't that thing need to be REALLY soft (like a pile of pillows) so it could expand the time that the object's momentum change would take place, and actually reduce the force exerced on them from the ground ? (or water, but I wouldn't think that those two different states would really act differently when hit by something as fast as somebody falling to it's death)
I was also wondering something that my friend said about the subject when I asked him ; We were talking about a scenario where someone would jump off a 150m bridge with a bed underneath them, and what would happen to that person. I was thinking that since the bed couldn't really make that well of an "Impact time extender", the guy would still feel as if there were no bed under him (or in other words, I told him he'd die). But my friend kept insisting that the bed would actually "break" the surface tension of the water, and that the man would therefore suffer no great injury.
I'd be really gratefull if someone could help me out with this.