Question.

[G-MAN2004]

After reading about tall buildings, I noticed the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan has the world's fastest lifts, which operate at 17 metres per second. This got me wondering, if you're going down in the lift and decide to jump, will you go crashing through the roof of it?

Silly question most likely, but oh well!

 

[G-MAN2004]

Ah yeah, physics is coming back to me now.

Thanks.

 

[G-MAN2004]

Relativity is a nasty thing.

OP, think of it this way. I think I've got it right.

Lift is dropping at 17m/s. When you jump up, you probably go 'up' by 1m/s or something, I doubt humans can jump much faster than that. This means that while you are in the air, you are still descending at 17 - 1 = 16m/s.

IF, and a big IF here, you could jump at the same speed as the lift is descending and provided you had enough room, you would essentially be immobile at one point (0 m/s) and this is when the lift would come down and hit you.

So as asked above, if the lift was descending at the same speed as what a human can jump at, it'd hit you?