Would you dare bring extreme sports
to the next level?
Do a bungee jump with no strings attached?
Don't worry, we won't let you hit the ground.
We'll use science to catch you
with some big magnets.
You've probably seen these thrill-seekers
jumping off cliffs and bridges.
But their "extreme" doesn't come close
to what we have in mind.
Bungee jumping usually means that
you're attached to an elastic rope.
You're also secured by a harness,
and protected from colliding
with the bungee cord by soft padding.
What we propose is a bungee jump
minus the rope,
plus a couple of massive magnets.
Theoretically, this could be possible.
Magnets have north and south poles,
and they produce magnetic fields around them.
The opposite poles are attracted to each other,
and the similar poles produce a force of repulsion.
What you'd need for a wireless bungee jump
is a magnet strapped to your harness,
with its south pole facing downwards.
You'd need another magnet on the ground,
with its south pole facing upwards.
You'd also need to think hard before you agree to do this,
because I wouldn't recommend trying it at home.
One thing I would recommend is
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Now that you're all geared up,
you're ready to take the jump.
The reason why bungee jumpers
aren't splashed all over the ground after the jump
is that the elastic rope slows them down to a stop,
and then pulls them back up,
then down,
then up,
then down, then up
until all the energy from the jump is spent.
With magnets, it's a little trickier.
When you're in free fall,
the gravitational force pulls you down
and increases your speed by 9.8 m/s (32 ft/s)
every second that you fall.
After 3 seconds of free fall,
you'd reach a speed of almost 30 m/s (98 ft/s).
Only you wouldn't have a stretchy rope to soften your fall.
Here's the thing about magnets.
When they're apart from each other,
their repulsive force is close to zero.
But as they get closer together,
the repulsive force increases very rapidly.
As you jumped down, the magnets would stop you
just a few centimeters from the ground.
But because of the forces involved in stopping you so fast,
you'd feel as if your body
got smashed by a truck.
I know, I promised you wouldn't get squashed into the ground.
But I didn't say you wouldn't get crushed
by the repulsive force between two magnets.
If you're wondering if this could get any worse,
it could.
If you moved slightly out of the line during your fall,
you'd risk flipping together with
the magnet attached to you.
Now, instead of facing
the opposite poles to each other,
the magnets would be facing the same poles.
And what do magnets do when they face similar poles?
Nothing will stop the magnets from touching each other,
not even your body caught in between.
The jump with magnets was a bad idea.
Sorry about that.
Looks like falling from an airplane could be safer than that,
under the right conditions.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.