Question.

G-MAN2004 · 7 Jan 2010 at 14:14

apeZ said:
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?

daz · 7 Jan 2010 at 14:14

Viper² said:
What if the lift was moving at 1m/s, would you float?

If the lift is falling at 9.8ms^-2, then yes, you would float.

Biohazard · 7 Jan 2010 at 14:14

for how long?

daz · 7 Jan 2010 at 14:16

Biohazard said:
for how long?

Depends on how tall the lift is...

LordSplodge · 7 Jan 2010 at 14:16

vonhelmet said:
Wrong.

The answer is no,
Relativity, yo.

daz · 7 Jan 2010 at 14:17

G-MAN2004 said:
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?

You're in the same inertial frame of reference as the lift. Jumping in the lift is the same as if the lift wasn't moving.