Cliff Jumping

This summer I went on a hiking trip to Colorado. While in Aspen, we visited a place called "Devil's Punchbowl", which is famous for its cliff jumping. Despite my excitement to jump, I ended up chickening out. This trip got me thinking about how intricate Cliff Jumping actually is. Although normally considered fun, some people take cliff jumping to the extreme. Laso Schaller jumped 59 meters this summer in Switzerland. Although the video doesn't show any math or physics, Schaller's jump was completely controlled by the kinematics we've been learning about. We know during his fall he accelerated 9.8 m/s^2 downward and his displacement was also 56 meters down. This information is very important because it can help us calculate the speed he will impact the water, which is important for breaking the surface of water. The video actually tells us this information, 123 km/hr, but we could use the total time of his fall 3.28 seconds to calculate this as well. Also, using kinematics, we can find out how deep he will travel below the surface to make sure he will never hit the ground. We would do this by using is velocity upon breaking the surface (123 km/hr) as his initial velocity, final velocity of zero, acceleration, and the time it took him to stop. Overall, this demonstrates how kinematics are involved in everyday life that most people dont know. Also it shows that some things that may seem harmless are actually more intricate than you think.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5uXL4w90yU