Always quick to remind anyone who will listen that the glass is, in fact, half full, Courtney offers up some helpful advice for the weekend: How to Survive a 10,000-Foot Fall.
Rhett Allain, associate professor of physics at Southeastern Louisiana State University, says that experimental evidence on the subject is thin, since it’s unethical to throw people out of airplanes for science.
“Fortunately, we don’t have enough data to make a trendline,” Allain says.
Still, Allain and others have a few ideas about the factors that might determine whether or not you survive a tumble from thousands of feet in the air.
Turns out there’s physics involved—and a little luck. Plus, some sound advice from Dr. Jeffrey Bender, professor of surgery at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center: “Don’t land on your head.”
