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Re: A Question of the Science Variety...Kind of
Posted By: Lightside, on host 63.210.225.216
Date: Saturday, March 24, 2001, at 23:41:49
In Reply To: A Question of the Science Variety...Kind of posted by Den-Kara on Saturday, March 24, 2001, at 23:05:24:

> Picture this scenario: You are riding in the back of a pickup truck (the truck has no tailgate, so it's just the truck's bed, then nothingness). Let's suppose that this truck is travelling at about 70 miles per hour on a completely straight, deserted highway. Suddenly, you stand up on both of your feet. Now, we're going to pretend that, upon standing, there is no wind rushing at you or away from you. Although the truck is moving, air is not hitting you. You're just there...standing up in the back of a truck travelling at 70 mph...no wind/air hitting you. You walk to the edge of the truck bed and look down. You see the road going by VERY quickly beneath the truck. Now here's my big question: Taking into account that the road is completely straight, that there are no other vehicles around, and that by standing there is (for a sci-fi kinda reason) no air hitting you, if you were to jump straight up into the air, leaving the truck to travel without you, would you get hurt upon landing on the road?

I hate to be picky (actually i like pointing out details :), but if you jumped STRAIGHT UP and there was no wind to slow down your constant speed, then you would jump, travel at the same speed as before in the non-existant air and land back together onto the truckbed. You could not "let the truck" leave you behind by jumping straight up because you are moving at the same speed with nothing to slow you down because you eliminated the air resistance. Answer: you would be most likely safe in this ideal world. (unless you had really bad ankles, then you should drink more milk)


Keep in mind that you jump with BOTH feet...if you jumped with one foot, followed by the other, then obviously one foot would be on the ground and the other would be in the truck, so somehow you'd get hurt/fall/etc. So yeah, taking into account all of those things, if you jumped up into the air and came down with both feet together, would you land safely?
>
> ~Den-"doubt anyone will understand that"Kara

Semantics aside, let's say that you jump just a little bit back, just enough to move off of the truck. Now let's say the world revolved around you (no ego jokes please). In your point-of-view then, you are perfectly still and the highway is whizzing along at about 70mph. It would be like jumping onto a giant treadmill. I would guess that you wouldn't be ok after that. I hope that answers you question.

--Light"Got Milk?"side

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