A3_2 It's Snow Problem

Abstract

Falling into a pile of snow can sometimes feel like falling into a cold, wet and slightly uncomfortable cushion. Although it may not be the most enjoyable way to break a fall, the fact remains that snow can dampen the force you experience and subsequently make the fall less painful (but unfortunately, no less embarrassing). In this article we calculate how much snow it would take to make a deadly fall, survivable. For a 70kg body falling at terminal velocity, the height of snow required to reduce the deceleration to a survivable 10 g was found to be 17.8 m.