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Dumb ways to die (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 28 points 3 years ago (1 child)

"Inertia is a property of matter"

Did none of these people watch Bill Nye??

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  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Even if they did, most people don't really grok what that means. Most people's mental models for reference frames are intertial and without transition, so the idea that they're still travelling at the speed of the boat, say, when they hit the water, and not the speed of the water, doesn't make intuitive sense to them.

    They left the boat. To them, that means they're no longer moving with the boat.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    I'm not so sure about this. If we apply the same logic to cars, it's immediately obvious that almost everyone understands this concept quite well -- jumping out of a moving car is dangerous, precisely because you'll be moving when you hit the ground.

    I think they're underestimating how quickly the boat is moving, and how quickly you'll slow down when you hit the water.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    I don't think people realize that water is H A R D when you hit it above a certain speed. No different than belly flopping off a bridge and completely disintegrating your innards.

    It's transferring known data to a different situation that people don't seem to be doing at all.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    Yes, exactly. People know the street is hard. People don't dive head first into the asphalt on the regular when they're standing still.

    They don't expect water to be any different when going fast than when not.

    And, like, obviously people have a sense that getting out of a speeding car is dangerous. They intuitively know that the road is speeding past them and that that speed differential will cause pain, injury, or worse. But I don't think they really understand themselves as a moving object in all of that.

    The car is moving fast, and "getting out of a moving car" is dangerous, as opposed to "being a high velocity object" is dangerous.

    The mental model is different, and incomplete, so some things seem like they should be possible when they're not.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    People understand you'd get hurt jumping out of a moving car (even still, people sometimes try it) but often underestimate the amount of force a vehicle moving at various speeds can apply. Huge difference between 30 mph and 60 mph.

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