Talk:Fall factor
What is the original source for the fall factor of 2?
How did people first calculate that a fall factor of 2 is as much as the human body can withstand? I've heard at least one rumor on this issue which is described in this mail I tried to send to snopes.com (but their submission form is broken):
- I'd like to submit a rumor on the origins of the climbing fall factor. The fall factor is the amount of force due to de-acceleration that a human being can tolerate. See e.g. this Wikipedia article on the matter:
- The rumor that I've heard several times in climbing circles is that the original source for what the human body can tolerate in these circumstances are medical experiments performed by the Third Reich in Germany during World War 2.
- However I haven't found anything online supporting this assertion, one paper which I've found which discusses fall factors located here:
- States in its acknowledgements section that:
- "Calculations like these have been published many times over. As best as I can tell, their origin goes back to Belaying the Leader, Richard M. Leonard and Arnold Wexler, Sierra Club Bulletin 31 (1946)"
- It would be interesting if you guys could debunk this and find out what is the original source for how much de-acceleration a human body can tolerate. Did someone do practical experiments on this (like the rumored Third Reich) or is the source derived from calculating how much stress the human skeleton can take or something else entirely?
The sources cited in this article don't give a definite answer to this question, it would be interesting if someone could add them. --Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 16:34, 11 December 2009 (UTC)