Warning, very graphic question!

[WyrdMystic]

You might also consider your POV character -some people would watch the person fall, some would even get their mobile phones out and video it - others would close their eyes or turn away and flinch when they hear the thud. Describing the scene isn't just about keepingthe science accurate, but also being true to your characters.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

I didn't read all of the replies so sorry if anyone has already said any of this.

As a former skydiver I can tell you that without training the body is difficult to control in free fall. It's takes about 10 seconds to cover your first thousand feet and it's at that point you reach terminal velocity. Every thousand feet after that takes about 5 seconds.

Before BASE jumping you learn to fly your body in sub-terminal air, without a controlled exit or that training people tend to roll through the air. People have died from 300 feet and people have lived from 14,000.

The slate would probably crumble if it wasn't reinforced and could well slow the rate of decent enough for survival.

Cheers,
Zach

I'd kind of forgotten about this thread, but thats useful to know, thanks.

 

[Zero Angel]

The slate would probably crumble if it wasn't reinforced and could well slow the rate of decent enough for survival.

That is the point I wanted to make as well. It's why they design cars to crumble in. If it's rigid, then the force is transferred. If it crumbles, then it absorbs the force before you. If you can absorb the shock by breaking other things (before your body), then it is possible that your body will not have to absorb the shock and can survive. Otherwise, all of that force will snap through your body and break you.

You can experience some of this from jumping from dangerous (or not-so-dangerous) heights as well. If you just jump up really high and fall back down, the tendency is to allow your knees to bend. This transfers the energy from being absorbed solely on your shins to throughout your leg and gives you added time to slow down, but this is limited by the elasticity of your tendons, ligaments and other bits (not a biologist).

If you've ever been mad enough to strike a wall with all your force and the wall did not bend or break, you probably broke your hand (or you are weak). If the wall bent in, then the wall probably absorbed the force instead. Just as your hand can be fine punching through a wall, your character could feasibly live punching through a ceiling, although then having to deal with the landing under and any debris from the roof. It would be very unfortunate for your character to survive the fall only to have the ceiling collapse on him and kill him.

One way of thinking of this is your jumper is the hand of a karate chop while the roof is the board it travels through and the space below is the floor below. If the chop hits too hard then it will go through and strike the floor (which is presumably ungiving, although if your building has a basement, then he might end up in the basement). On the other hand, if the chop hits "wrong" or too light, then the hand will break on the board or bounce off. If the chop hits at the right angle with the right force, then it could go through the board and land safely on the ground.

Regardless, because of these physical properties, you could have the body in virtually any level of gore imaginable (from living and unhurt to a puddle). You can successfully argue that the body slowed down enough going through the roof to land unhurt (or slightly damaged) inside, or you could say that even though it broke the roof, it was traveling so fast and hit the roof at an optimal angle (or suboptimal as the case may be) that it hit the ground at near terminal velocity levels.