How to Survive a Falling Elevator

[Music] no not again [Music] not every elevator ride ends up like this but when the steel doors close and feel you inside one square meter of space you might find yourself picturing a worst-case scenario well for your peace of mind it's time you learned how to survive a falling elevator the average office building elevator works about ten hours a day and it makes 400,000 trips a year that's roughly the number of Mike trips to the fridge in times of social isolation getting stuck in an elevator is unpleasant it happens to one in every 5,000 rides but there's nothing deadly about that finding yourself in a free-falling elevator is quite rare one in ten million trips you have a better chance of being killed by a bear in Yellowstone National Park but if you ever do happen to be in a situation like this can you save yourself by jumping up in the air or should you keep as low as possible luckily for you we've got a list of four helpful tips to get you out of this alive number one do not jump there's a theory that if you jump at just the right moment as the elevator is hitting the floor you'll decrease the speed of your fall that supposedly will give you a soft landing but chances that you could pull this off are close to zero pushing yourself off the floor of a falling elevator is hard enough but even if you do jump at exactly the right time you'll have to make an incredibly fast jump if you aren't some kind of Superman don't attempt to do this number two don't brace for the impact it might seem counterintuitive but bracing yourself won't save you quite the contrary this is because as you are falling to the bottom of the shaft the elevator and your body inside it will experience gravitational acceleration and because of this acceleration your body weight would multiply making you seem a lot heavier than normal your legs won't be able to support your body and even your own head would become too heavy for your neck to hold it up and that won't do you any good okay so far you've got some tips on what not to do in a falling elevator but what should you do to get out of the shaft safely that brings us to tip number three get down this is a situation when the few extra pounds you put on over the winter can save your life find whatever part of your body is the chubbiest and press that part against the floor it'll act like padding and distribute the force of the impact all over your body increasing your chances of surviving just remember to protect your head with your hands before you hit the ground number four don't stress out when you hit that button and get into the metal box the odds of making it safely to your destination are very high the modern elevators feature a variety of safety backups even if by some very unfortunate accident the motor fails and absolutely all the metal cables fall down the electromagnetic breaks will activate and stop the elevator from the plunging to the ground and remember that surviving a falling elevator isn't impossible in 1945 when a bomber accidentally hit the Empire State Building one woman happened to be in an elevator she plummeted 75 floors to the basement and got out of there with a few broken bones but if you feel anxious just take the stairs and we'll be here to help you survive whatever awaits you [Music] [Applause]

Channel: How to Survive

Views: 1,242,256

Keywords: survive, how to survive, survival, survivalguide, what if, science, how to survive a falling elevator, how to survive a falling elevator according to science, what to do if the elevator falls, falling elevator, survival tips, elevator crash down, free falling elevator, free falling, safety rules, falling elevator jump, safety hacks, safety hacks for kids

Id: wiPdBXj5xuc

Length: 4min 26sec (266 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020