ChatterBank1 min ago
Can gravity/weight kill you?
How much weight does it take to kill you? I mean like, if you visited another planet with more gravity (such as jupiter or saturn, or some other planet we haven't discovered yet), how many times would your weight need to be multiplied to kill you?
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yes, we already carry 14lbs per square inch, so higher pressure than that would press down more. How much weight would it take to crush you, divide by 14 that's how many times earth pressure would be needed. Compare with going deep under water eventually you reach a point where the weight of water above crushes you.
Have you ever been on one of those awful rides at the fair where you stand up inside a spinning tube and the floor drops away whilst you stick to the walls? Well, I don't think that we could take that G every day! Fighter pilots can pull 9 x gravity before passing out with alot of training and a special jump suit. Obivously we can only stand these extremes for very short periods, the limiting factor being getting oxygen to the brain...no blood, no oxygen...death.
I think I may have spoken too soon concerning agreement with Loosehead in a previous question.. I think it's obvious the question present concerns how much more gravity pressure would it take to kill a person. The 14 pounds per square inch referenced in Looseheads response is actually, pedantically, 14.7 lbs per square inch of air pressure at sea level. He may have well intended the answer to mean that. As we know, the force of gravity exerted on any object is dependant on the distance the object is from the center of the gravity producing body, in this case, Earth. Therefore, consider the size of one's foot in square inches, possibly 4 inches X 10 inches X 2 (2 feet in most cases), equals about 80 square inches as a rough example. Divide this into the weight of the person (180 pounds for example) and we see that only about 2.25 pounds per square inch are exerted on the soles of the feet.
As whowhatwhy has pointed out, artificially imposed gravity forces (G's) can be imposed. As a member of aircraft accident investigation teams we find the human body can withstand, under ideal circumstances, perhaps 24 G's, before fatal injuries are incurred. This equates to 54 pounds per square inch if the person were standing up or nearly 4400 pounds. Realistically, however, the person able to withstand that amount of force is probably reclining in a form fitting seat, hence many more additional square inches to absorb the G's. A guess for the person standing up would be in the neighborhood of 2000 to 2500 pounds or around 12 to 14 G's. Additionally, the usual cause of death for the seated person in an accident producing 24 G's is failure of the suspension system or pericardium of the heart within the chest cavity, resulting in rupturing of the aorta arch by the downward pressure...
As whowhatwhy has pointed out, artificially imposed gravity forces (G's) can be imposed. As a member of aircraft accident investigation teams we find the human body can withstand, under ideal circumstances, perhaps 24 G's, before fatal injuries are incurred. This equates to 54 pounds per square inch if the person were standing up or nearly 4400 pounds. Realistically, however, the person able to withstand that amount of force is probably reclining in a form fitting seat, hence many more additional square inches to absorb the G's. A guess for the person standing up would be in the neighborhood of 2000 to 2500 pounds or around 12 to 14 G's. Additionally, the usual cause of death for the seated person in an accident producing 24 G's is failure of the suspension system or pericardium of the heart within the chest cavity, resulting in rupturing of the aorta arch by the downward pressure...
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