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Have any of you been on the Hollywood Tower Hotel in Disneyland? Or any other ride which has a sharp drop? How does the drop compare to jumping off a fixed object?

YMMV, but I wouldn't compare them at all. I don't think I've ever gotten the "my balls are floating in their sack", "pit of my stomach" freefall feeling that you get on most rollercoasters (and on the Hollywood Tower Hotel ride).

It's more a feeling of complete disconnectedness for 2-3 seconds, and then rapidly strengthening wind. After about 3 seconds it's just like a skydive. Others will claim the skydive feeling doesn't kick in until 7-8 seconds, but for me it feels like a skydive as soon as I have control over my movements, and that's usually from 3+ seconds. However, I almost always jump with a tracksuit, which might explain this.

The 2-3 second "disconnectedness" feeling is difficult to explain...it's similar to a feeling of complete and utter lack of control. No matter how much your flail your limbs, for the first 2-3 seconds you're going to have practically zero impact on your body's rotation. Basically, whatever angular momentum you have when you leave the exit has total control over your body for 2-3 seconds.

I'd imagine it's similar to floating in space...no matter how much you kick and flail, you have no control over your motion.

Hope this explains it for you.

Pretty accurate description. I also get the feeling Im floating for the first second or two, even though I am falling it feels like im just there hangin.

well, I kinda disagree.

rotational inertia is more complicated than that.
in a perfect model (or the first few seconds of freefall in a stable airmass) your rotaional inertia MUST remain the same, but not the rotational speed.

IE, to fix a sloppy slow gainer you 'tuck' into a ball. this moves the slowly rotating mass in your arms in closer to the CG, because that rotational distance is shorter, the rotational speed is increased, and it brings the flip around.

ALSO, "rolling down the windows", as lame as it looks, actually DOES work. it accelerates parts of your mass in the opposite the desired direction of the more important and immovable parts. rolling down the windows WILL work, because it does not violate the 3rd law. well, it will work until aerodynamic control is reached.


PS- the tower of terror gives you no aerodynamic control, and rolling down the windows will make you hit someone in the face sitting next to you.

Which is why I picked angular momentum instead of rotational inertia. Within a closed system (i.e. one with no net external torque), angular momentum is fixed and cannot be changed. If you start rolling down the windows, this may temporarily counteract rotation in the rest of the system, but the overall angular momentum of the system remains constant.

Calvin's absolutely right though...you can (somewhat limitedly) influence your body's rotation during those first few seconds of dead air. You can change your body's moment of inertia (by balling up or spreading out wide), which will change your angular velocity. This is the first trick any jumper learns when doing aerials. You can also roll down the windows, which will temporarily change the angular velocity of your torso (until you stop swinging your arms around, at which time your torso's rotation continues just as it was originally).

Flailing your arms and legs, however, will have practically no effect.

And I suspect that most people who "roll down the windows" aren't doing it out of skill, but rather as an automatic reaction that doesn't provide any control at all.

I once fell off a 315' freestander, was going
head down, and saw lots of steel and death.

I whipped myself into a back-bend somehow
putting me belly to earth and I pitched hard.

This matches what jumper #1 saw from the
ground. It all worked out, but of course it
could have just been some Jedi magic.

edited to add:


LOL

word.

I don't know any sciencyer talk than what I mad up in my last post.



and as for rolling down the windows, it is not "taught" to people, it is instinct. so it must work enough to make a few millennia old humanoids live long enough to breed.

angular momentum? sounds better than rotational inertia for sure. (honestly asking because I have no idea; is it the same thing?)

Calvin im stealing that quote and putting it in my sig ;)

The tower of terror is high enough

thats where i thought this was going...

So is Cinderella Castle at Disney World, if you could clear the spiers. And yes, you can get to the top of this buidling.