jumping in a falling lift

[spaced]

If a lift you were in hurtled to the ground from a great height, would you come out un-hurt if you jumped up inside the lift at the moment of impact?

[gbfish]

I doubt it very much, from a grat height we can assume that the lift itself will be destroyed on impact, the ceiling of the lift would still be hurtling towards your head if you jump so it would crush you. it is also possible that your feet would not be touching the floor at the time of impact as the lift may fall faster than a human meaning you would be either appear to be floating in the lift or be stuck to the ceiling of it, then at the point of impat you would be damaged considerably!

If the lift had no roof. like those window cleaner platforms, and you managed to stay standing on the platform until jut before the point of impact, then you may be right, i would like to know this myself, incase i am ever cleaning a skyscraper.

[Catso]

No.

Say the lift was dropping at 100mph. You jumped off the floor at 5mph. You're still hurtling down at 95mph. Which is going to hurt when you land.

[Homer55]

they tried this on mythbusters and needless to say buster the dummy didnt take it very well!

[fo3nix]

Luckily mr otis invented a clever device to prevent this.

[mibn2cweus]

If you could pry the door open in time you could step outside just before it crashed!

[wildwood]

You would probably be less hurt if you were to lie flat on the floor of the lift, on your back with you coat rolled up under your head.

In reality, a falling lift would not permit you to make any sensible concious decision before it hit the ground.

There are many safety features incorporated in an elevator. All the cables, including the backup cables, would have to break at the same time, the brakes which are applied when there is no power or when the lift is traveling down faster than the permitted speed would have to fall off - they can not fail as the normal position is "on". solenoids release the brake when the lift is working. Some have additional safety like the older type that have solid spring loaded steel hooks that lock in hole in the side guiderail - also held unlocked by solenoids.

Traveling in a lift is safer than getting up in the morning.

[Lmman]

Catso got it right, but didn't say why.
When the cable snapped both you and the lift would go into free fall. Galileo proved that a bag of feathers and a heavy rock (no, not Aerosmith!) dropped from the top of the tower of Pisa, both landed at the same time.
He also worked out the rate at which a falling body accelerates under the influence of Earth's gravity - this turns out to be 16ft in the 1st second, then 32ft per second per second, so you'd fall 48ft after 2 seconds, 80ft after 3 seconds, 112ft after 4 seconds, etc etc.
Both you and the lift would accelerate at the same rate, for the same length of time, so if you jump into the air a fraction of a second before the lift hits the bottom, you'll hit bottom just a fraction of a second later, at exactly the same speed as the lift.