A fatal mistake

[Backlighting]

A friend of mine was recently in town to paint one of his rental homes. While in the driveway he placed an extension ladder against the house to paint the overhangs. He was about 12 ft. up. One of his co-workers offered to hold steady the ladder. My friend told him it was un-necessary & to go paint another area of the house. Well the ladder he was standing on slipped away and he fell...landing on his back. He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with multiple breaks of his spine and internal bleeding. He died a few days later, leaving behind 2 children & a wife... I'll never look at a ladder the same away again.

Just thought I'd post this as a safety reminder to all.  --Joe

[BaalChatzaf]

1 hour ago, Backlighting said:

A friend of mine was recently in town to paint one of his rental homes. While in the driveway he placed an extension ladder against the house to paint the overhangs. He was about 12 ft. up. One of his co-workers offered to hold steady the ladder. My friend told him it was un-necessary & to go paint another area of the house. Well the ladder he was standing on slipped away and he fell...landing on his back. He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with multiple breaks of his spine and internal bleeding. He died a few days later, leaving behind 2 children & a wife... I'll never look at a ladder the same away again.

Just thought I'd post this as a safety reminder to all.  --Joe

once a person is more that ten feet off the ground he is in The Ranks of Death.  On object dropped from 20 feet will hit the ground at over 10 mph. 

[Backlighting]

I have smoke alarms, which were installed by the builder of my residence, at the highest point of the ceiling...about 12 ft. Rather than risk replacing the batteries via a stepladder, I'll probably just install wall mounted alarms on the walls, 6' up from the ground. Didn't know until recently that wall mounted ones were available.

[Brant Gaede]

5 hours ago, Backlighting said:

I have smoke alarms, which were installed by the builder of my residence, at the highest point of the ceiling...about 12 ft. Rather than risk replacing the batteries via a stepladder, I'll probably just install wall mounted alarms on the walls, 6' up from the ground. Didn't know until recently that wall mounted ones were available.

If by the builder they should have been hard-wired.

My home was built in 1978 with one hard-wired detector on the hall wall. It went off some years ago preventing major fire damage. I also own one or two primitive detectors made in the 1950s, not later than the 1960s, that were supposed to be flame--not smoke--activated. (Maybe by temperature?) Worthless.

--Brant

[Brant Gaede]

6 hours ago, BaalChatzaf said:

once a person is more that ten feet off the ground he is in The Ranks of Death.  On object dropped from 20 feet will hit the ground at over 10 mph. 

The people who jumped from the top of the World Trade Center 9/11 were likely going about 200mph, or their max free fall speed for that density altitude.

--Brant

[BaalChatzaf]

9 hours ago, Brant Gaede said:

The people who jumped from the top of the World Trade Center 9/11 were likely going about 200mph, or their max free fall speed for that density altitude.

--Brant

Terminal velocity in air depends on how the person falls.  If he was broadside to his downward  path his terminal velocity would be about 130 mph.  If he feel head first presenting less drag his terminal velocity would be higher.  The parachute which has a large cross section slows the terminal velocity down to about 20 mph  which is what a free fall from fifteen or twenty feet would produce.  And a chute design as a para- sail gives the jumper some control over where he lands and produces a terminal velocity of about 10 mph  which a trained jumper can easily handle.

By the way Aristotle was right (in a way). Heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones when the object falls through a viscous medium. Old Mr. A  did not believe in vacua and assumed all falls would be through something like water or oil.   Mr. A.  simply did not conceive of falls through a near perfect vacuum.  On Apollo 15 Astronaut Dave Scott dropped a hammer and a feather to the surface of the moon from the same height.  Both objects hit the deck at the same time.  Chalk one  up for Galileo.