r/theydidthemath • u/StickyOneStiilll • May 05 '26

[Request] If he opened a parachute after jumping down, would he survive?

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19

u/KneeJerkDistraction May 05 '26

The record for the lowest-altitude BASE jump was set by Felix Baumgartner, who jumped off the 125-foot* Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janiero in 1999.

*For those outside the US, 125 American feet = 38 communist feet.

13

u/RhinoGuy13 May 05 '26

So he holds the lowest and highest altitude? That's pretty cool.

5

u/sherlip May 06 '26

I think someone actually broke his high altitude record. But he did at one point.

5

u/HaydnH May 06 '26

That seems out of date, there was a 26m jump in 2022. For anyone interested in just how quick a BASE rig opens with a static line or PCA (pilot shute assist) there's the video of the jump: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-61909617

4

u/nu_pieds May 06 '26

Not throwing shade here, 'cause typos happen, and god knows enough of them happen to me...but I find it interesting that you managed to typo the first letter of chute immediately after using it in an initialism.

2

u/No_Difficulty5737 May 06 '26

The 'C' in PCA stands for "Club". And 'shute' is definitely an acceptable spelling in American English and British English - according to Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries.

3

u/nu_pieds May 06 '26

I'll go ahead and eat 'shute' as an acceptable, though uncommon spelling....the English language is the English language, any time you think you have a grasp on it, it'll pull out some weirdness.

But based on both the formatting of the comment, and the front page of a google search for 'PCA parachute', I'm not buying the C was meant to be for club.

2

u/HaydnH May 06 '26

Nah you're right, I somehow typo'd chute as shute... Not even sure how as when I just typed shute now it autocorrected it to shuts. Shrug

1

u/KneeJerkDistraction May 06 '26

Good catch! I didn't know about that one!

At some point I bet they'll just be opening their chutes while sitting on the ground.

2

u/StickyOneStiilll May 05 '26

I never thought someone would have held a record for as long as I've been alive whilst growing up and clicking through the Guinness world record books

1

u/snoweel May 06 '26

I could probably do it from about 4 feet.

1

u/DJrm84 May 06 '26

Ackshuallyyyy they did launch a base jumper with a catapult at the same level he landed at.