How durable would a person need to be to survive terminal velocity?












2












$begingroup$


For a fantasy race or for bio-augmented humans, how durable would they have to be to walk away from a 1000ft free fall unscathed? And how would this logically translate to other forms of durability? Would it make gunfire from calibers like 9mm or .45 entirely ineffectual? What about more powerful rounds like .308 or even .50cal? Would the force from a bullet that powerful be enough to crack the skull of someone able to survive landing on their head if pushed off a skyscraper?










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  • $begingroup$
    My parent's description of how hard my head was when I was a teen would suggest an age-based mechanism. Welcome to the site! When you get a chance, please take our tour. Thanks!
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    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Can I be bioaugmented to a weight of 1 kg? I am pretty sure that between that and my (considerable) surface area, terminal velocity would be pretty manageable. Maybe I could even glide around some, flying-squirrel style. I would stay inside when it was windy, or have my sidekick hold some kind of tether.
    $endgroup$
    – Willk
    3 hours ago








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    It's not terminal velocity that kills, it's the sudden stop at the end.
    $endgroup$
    – pojo-guy
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the @Willk Elstrometric Energy Beachball Landing Enclosure (WEEBLE).
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Welcome to worldbuilding. Science based cannot be the only tag in a question, please consider adding more. To understand more about our community, please take the tour and visit the help center.
    $endgroup$
    – L.Dutch
    1 hour ago
















2












$begingroup$


For a fantasy race or for bio-augmented humans, how durable would they have to be to walk away from a 1000ft free fall unscathed? And how would this logically translate to other forms of durability? Would it make gunfire from calibers like 9mm or .45 entirely ineffectual? What about more powerful rounds like .308 or even .50cal? Would the force from a bullet that powerful be enough to crack the skull of someone able to survive landing on their head if pushed off a skyscraper?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Con99 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







$endgroup$












  • $begingroup$
    My parent's description of how hard my head was when I was a teen would suggest an age-based mechanism. Welcome to the site! When you get a chance, please take our tour. Thanks!
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Can I be bioaugmented to a weight of 1 kg? I am pretty sure that between that and my (considerable) surface area, terminal velocity would be pretty manageable. Maybe I could even glide around some, flying-squirrel style. I would stay inside when it was windy, or have my sidekick hold some kind of tether.
    $endgroup$
    – Willk
    3 hours ago








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    It's not terminal velocity that kills, it's the sudden stop at the end.
    $endgroup$
    – pojo-guy
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the @Willk Elstrometric Energy Beachball Landing Enclosure (WEEBLE).
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Welcome to worldbuilding. Science based cannot be the only tag in a question, please consider adding more. To understand more about our community, please take the tour and visit the help center.
    $endgroup$
    – L.Dutch
    1 hour ago














2












2








2





$begingroup$


For a fantasy race or for bio-augmented humans, how durable would they have to be to walk away from a 1000ft free fall unscathed? And how would this logically translate to other forms of durability? Would it make gunfire from calibers like 9mm or .45 entirely ineffectual? What about more powerful rounds like .308 or even .50cal? Would the force from a bullet that powerful be enough to crack the skull of someone able to survive landing on their head if pushed off a skyscraper?










share|improve this question









New contributor




Con99 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







$endgroup$




For a fantasy race or for bio-augmented humans, how durable would they have to be to walk away from a 1000ft free fall unscathed? And how would this logically translate to other forms of durability? Would it make gunfire from calibers like 9mm or .45 entirely ineffectual? What about more powerful rounds like .308 or even .50cal? Would the force from a bullet that powerful be enough to crack the skull of someone able to survive landing on their head if pushed off a skyscraper?







science-based biology






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share|improve this question









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share|improve this question








edited 12 mins ago









Riker

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1358






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asked 4 hours ago









Con99Con99

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Con99 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






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  • $begingroup$
    My parent's description of how hard my head was when I was a teen would suggest an age-based mechanism. Welcome to the site! When you get a chance, please take our tour. Thanks!
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Can I be bioaugmented to a weight of 1 kg? I am pretty sure that between that and my (considerable) surface area, terminal velocity would be pretty manageable. Maybe I could even glide around some, flying-squirrel style. I would stay inside when it was windy, or have my sidekick hold some kind of tether.
    $endgroup$
    – Willk
    3 hours ago








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    It's not terminal velocity that kills, it's the sudden stop at the end.
    $endgroup$
    – pojo-guy
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the @Willk Elstrometric Energy Beachball Landing Enclosure (WEEBLE).
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Welcome to worldbuilding. Science based cannot be the only tag in a question, please consider adding more. To understand more about our community, please take the tour and visit the help center.
    $endgroup$
    – L.Dutch
    1 hour ago


















  • $begingroup$
    My parent's description of how hard my head was when I was a teen would suggest an age-based mechanism. Welcome to the site! When you get a chance, please take our tour. Thanks!
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    3 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Can I be bioaugmented to a weight of 1 kg? I am pretty sure that between that and my (considerable) surface area, terminal velocity would be pretty manageable. Maybe I could even glide around some, flying-squirrel style. I would stay inside when it was windy, or have my sidekick hold some kind of tether.
    $endgroup$
    – Willk
    3 hours ago








  • 1




    $begingroup$
    It's not terminal velocity that kills, it's the sudden stop at the end.
    $endgroup$
    – pojo-guy
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the @Willk Elstrometric Energy Beachball Landing Enclosure (WEEBLE).
    $endgroup$
    – JBH
    2 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Welcome to worldbuilding. Science based cannot be the only tag in a question, please consider adding more. To understand more about our community, please take the tour and visit the help center.
    $endgroup$
    – L.Dutch
    1 hour ago
















$begingroup$
My parent's description of how hard my head was when I was a teen would suggest an age-based mechanism. Welcome to the site! When you get a chance, please take our tour. Thanks!
$endgroup$
– JBH
3 hours ago




$begingroup$
My parent's description of how hard my head was when I was a teen would suggest an age-based mechanism. Welcome to the site! When you get a chance, please take our tour. Thanks!
$endgroup$
– JBH
3 hours ago




1




1




$begingroup$
Can I be bioaugmented to a weight of 1 kg? I am pretty sure that between that and my (considerable) surface area, terminal velocity would be pretty manageable. Maybe I could even glide around some, flying-squirrel style. I would stay inside when it was windy, or have my sidekick hold some kind of tether.
$endgroup$
– Willk
3 hours ago






$begingroup$
Can I be bioaugmented to a weight of 1 kg? I am pretty sure that between that and my (considerable) surface area, terminal velocity would be pretty manageable. Maybe I could even glide around some, flying-squirrel style. I would stay inside when it was windy, or have my sidekick hold some kind of tether.
$endgroup$
– Willk
3 hours ago






1




1




$begingroup$
It's not terminal velocity that kills, it's the sudden stop at the end.
$endgroup$
– pojo-guy
2 hours ago




$begingroup$
It's not terminal velocity that kills, it's the sudden stop at the end.
$endgroup$
– pojo-guy
2 hours ago












$begingroup$
Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the @Willk Elstrometric Energy Beachball Landing Enclosure (WEEBLE).
$endgroup$
– JBH
2 hours ago




$begingroup$
Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the @Willk Elstrometric Energy Beachball Landing Enclosure (WEEBLE).
$endgroup$
– JBH
2 hours ago












$begingroup$
Welcome to worldbuilding. Science based cannot be the only tag in a question, please consider adding more. To understand more about our community, please take the tour and visit the help center.
$endgroup$
– L.Dutch
1 hour ago




$begingroup$
Welcome to worldbuilding. Science based cannot be the only tag in a question, please consider adding more. To understand more about our community, please take the tour and visit the help center.
$endgroup$
– L.Dutch
1 hour ago










1 Answer
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$begingroup$

Normal human durability, and a lot of luck



People have survived terminal velocity falls. In 1972, Vesna Vulović fell over 33,330 ft without a parachute after the plane she was in exploded. She didn't exactly walk away from the fall, however. She spent days in a coma, and was hospitalized for months after that. But she did survive.



Vulović is not the only one to survive a fall that should have killed them. They all had varying degrees of injury, so perhaps it's not quite accurate to say that normal human durability is all that's required. But the point is that there are a great many factors involved in surviving a fall, and the height and the body's structure are only two of them.



That said, here are some other suggestions of the types of people who would fall well:



Lighter people



From On Being the Right Size by J. B. S. Haldane:




To the mouse and any smaller animal [gravity] presents practically no dangers. You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. For the resistance presented to movement by the air is proportional to the surface of the moving object. Divide an animal’s length, breadth, and height each by ten; its weight is reduced to a thousandth, but its surface only to a hundredth. So the resistance to falling in the case of the small animal is relatively ten times greater than the driving force.




Terminal velocity is a function of (among other things) weight. The lighter you are, the lower the velocity at which you hit the ground, and the easier it is for you to survive.



Wider people



Wingsuit flying is a reasonably popular sport where flyers skydive in a suit with "wings" between the arms and body, and between the legs. These jumps typically end with a parachute, but in 2012, Gary Connery landed a 2,400 ft jump without a parachute, landing on a "runway" of cardboard boxes.



Also, having wings gives you more ability to steer towards softer ground, which is always a plus.



The best enhancements for falling durability are not going to make you bulletproof



Bullets kill by piercing - by applying a large amount of force in a small area, they are able to penetrate the protective layers of our bodies and apply that force to the vulnerable parts of our bodies. That's why bulletproof materials function by preventing the piercing effect and distributing the force over a larger area.



That sort of protection is not going to help against a fall, where the entire area of your body is experiencing the massive forces involved. Conversely, the cushioning and strengthening of the enhancements needed to protect against a fall are not going to do much to stop the piercing effects of a bullet.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    This is a great answer. The only thing I can think to improve would be mentions of how a humanoid could be more resilient to a high-speed impact. Maybe things like faster reflexes to enable better control of impact angle, more cushioning around vital organs (like the brain), and stronger bones, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. These improvements could allow for good survival odds even with a terminal velocity impact against solid rock. (Severe injury would still be likely in such a situation.)
    $endgroup$
    – Kyle A
    1 hour ago










  • $begingroup$
    The tricky thing about stronger bones is that all else being equal they tend to be heavier. So maybe all else is not equal, and they're made of a material that's stronger by weight than mammalian bones.
    $endgroup$
    – nasch
    18 mins ago











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1 Answer
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1 Answer
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active

oldest

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4












$begingroup$

Normal human durability, and a lot of luck



People have survived terminal velocity falls. In 1972, Vesna Vulović fell over 33,330 ft without a parachute after the plane she was in exploded. She didn't exactly walk away from the fall, however. She spent days in a coma, and was hospitalized for months after that. But she did survive.



Vulović is not the only one to survive a fall that should have killed them. They all had varying degrees of injury, so perhaps it's not quite accurate to say that normal human durability is all that's required. But the point is that there are a great many factors involved in surviving a fall, and the height and the body's structure are only two of them.



That said, here are some other suggestions of the types of people who would fall well:



Lighter people



From On Being the Right Size by J. B. S. Haldane:




To the mouse and any smaller animal [gravity] presents practically no dangers. You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. For the resistance presented to movement by the air is proportional to the surface of the moving object. Divide an animal’s length, breadth, and height each by ten; its weight is reduced to a thousandth, but its surface only to a hundredth. So the resistance to falling in the case of the small animal is relatively ten times greater than the driving force.




Terminal velocity is a function of (among other things) weight. The lighter you are, the lower the velocity at which you hit the ground, and the easier it is for you to survive.



Wider people



Wingsuit flying is a reasonably popular sport where flyers skydive in a suit with "wings" between the arms and body, and between the legs. These jumps typically end with a parachute, but in 2012, Gary Connery landed a 2,400 ft jump without a parachute, landing on a "runway" of cardboard boxes.



Also, having wings gives you more ability to steer towards softer ground, which is always a plus.



The best enhancements for falling durability are not going to make you bulletproof



Bullets kill by piercing - by applying a large amount of force in a small area, they are able to penetrate the protective layers of our bodies and apply that force to the vulnerable parts of our bodies. That's why bulletproof materials function by preventing the piercing effect and distributing the force over a larger area.



That sort of protection is not going to help against a fall, where the entire area of your body is experiencing the massive forces involved. Conversely, the cushioning and strengthening of the enhancements needed to protect against a fall are not going to do much to stop the piercing effects of a bullet.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    This is a great answer. The only thing I can think to improve would be mentions of how a humanoid could be more resilient to a high-speed impact. Maybe things like faster reflexes to enable better control of impact angle, more cushioning around vital organs (like the brain), and stronger bones, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. These improvements could allow for good survival odds even with a terminal velocity impact against solid rock. (Severe injury would still be likely in such a situation.)
    $endgroup$
    – Kyle A
    1 hour ago










  • $begingroup$
    The tricky thing about stronger bones is that all else being equal they tend to be heavier. So maybe all else is not equal, and they're made of a material that's stronger by weight than mammalian bones.
    $endgroup$
    – nasch
    18 mins ago
















4












$begingroup$

Normal human durability, and a lot of luck



People have survived terminal velocity falls. In 1972, Vesna Vulović fell over 33,330 ft without a parachute after the plane she was in exploded. She didn't exactly walk away from the fall, however. She spent days in a coma, and was hospitalized for months after that. But she did survive.



Vulović is not the only one to survive a fall that should have killed them. They all had varying degrees of injury, so perhaps it's not quite accurate to say that normal human durability is all that's required. But the point is that there are a great many factors involved in surviving a fall, and the height and the body's structure are only two of them.



That said, here are some other suggestions of the types of people who would fall well:



Lighter people



From On Being the Right Size by J. B. S. Haldane:




To the mouse and any smaller animal [gravity] presents practically no dangers. You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. For the resistance presented to movement by the air is proportional to the surface of the moving object. Divide an animal’s length, breadth, and height each by ten; its weight is reduced to a thousandth, but its surface only to a hundredth. So the resistance to falling in the case of the small animal is relatively ten times greater than the driving force.




Terminal velocity is a function of (among other things) weight. The lighter you are, the lower the velocity at which you hit the ground, and the easier it is for you to survive.



Wider people



Wingsuit flying is a reasonably popular sport where flyers skydive in a suit with "wings" between the arms and body, and between the legs. These jumps typically end with a parachute, but in 2012, Gary Connery landed a 2,400 ft jump without a parachute, landing on a "runway" of cardboard boxes.



Also, having wings gives you more ability to steer towards softer ground, which is always a plus.



The best enhancements for falling durability are not going to make you bulletproof



Bullets kill by piercing - by applying a large amount of force in a small area, they are able to penetrate the protective layers of our bodies and apply that force to the vulnerable parts of our bodies. That's why bulletproof materials function by preventing the piercing effect and distributing the force over a larger area.



That sort of protection is not going to help against a fall, where the entire area of your body is experiencing the massive forces involved. Conversely, the cushioning and strengthening of the enhancements needed to protect against a fall are not going to do much to stop the piercing effects of a bullet.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    This is a great answer. The only thing I can think to improve would be mentions of how a humanoid could be more resilient to a high-speed impact. Maybe things like faster reflexes to enable better control of impact angle, more cushioning around vital organs (like the brain), and stronger bones, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. These improvements could allow for good survival odds even with a terminal velocity impact against solid rock. (Severe injury would still be likely in such a situation.)
    $endgroup$
    – Kyle A
    1 hour ago










  • $begingroup$
    The tricky thing about stronger bones is that all else being equal they tend to be heavier. So maybe all else is not equal, and they're made of a material that's stronger by weight than mammalian bones.
    $endgroup$
    – nasch
    18 mins ago














4












4








4





$begingroup$

Normal human durability, and a lot of luck



People have survived terminal velocity falls. In 1972, Vesna Vulović fell over 33,330 ft without a parachute after the plane she was in exploded. She didn't exactly walk away from the fall, however. She spent days in a coma, and was hospitalized for months after that. But she did survive.



Vulović is not the only one to survive a fall that should have killed them. They all had varying degrees of injury, so perhaps it's not quite accurate to say that normal human durability is all that's required. But the point is that there are a great many factors involved in surviving a fall, and the height and the body's structure are only two of them.



That said, here are some other suggestions of the types of people who would fall well:



Lighter people



From On Being the Right Size by J. B. S. Haldane:




To the mouse and any smaller animal [gravity] presents practically no dangers. You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. For the resistance presented to movement by the air is proportional to the surface of the moving object. Divide an animal’s length, breadth, and height each by ten; its weight is reduced to a thousandth, but its surface only to a hundredth. So the resistance to falling in the case of the small animal is relatively ten times greater than the driving force.




Terminal velocity is a function of (among other things) weight. The lighter you are, the lower the velocity at which you hit the ground, and the easier it is for you to survive.



Wider people



Wingsuit flying is a reasonably popular sport where flyers skydive in a suit with "wings" between the arms and body, and between the legs. These jumps typically end with a parachute, but in 2012, Gary Connery landed a 2,400 ft jump without a parachute, landing on a "runway" of cardboard boxes.



Also, having wings gives you more ability to steer towards softer ground, which is always a plus.



The best enhancements for falling durability are not going to make you bulletproof



Bullets kill by piercing - by applying a large amount of force in a small area, they are able to penetrate the protective layers of our bodies and apply that force to the vulnerable parts of our bodies. That's why bulletproof materials function by preventing the piercing effect and distributing the force over a larger area.



That sort of protection is not going to help against a fall, where the entire area of your body is experiencing the massive forces involved. Conversely, the cushioning and strengthening of the enhancements needed to protect against a fall are not going to do much to stop the piercing effects of a bullet.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$



Normal human durability, and a lot of luck



People have survived terminal velocity falls. In 1972, Vesna Vulović fell over 33,330 ft without a parachute after the plane she was in exploded. She didn't exactly walk away from the fall, however. She spent days in a coma, and was hospitalized for months after that. But she did survive.



Vulović is not the only one to survive a fall that should have killed them. They all had varying degrees of injury, so perhaps it's not quite accurate to say that normal human durability is all that's required. But the point is that there are a great many factors involved in surviving a fall, and the height and the body's structure are only two of them.



That said, here are some other suggestions of the types of people who would fall well:



Lighter people



From On Being the Right Size by J. B. S. Haldane:




To the mouse and any smaller animal [gravity] presents practically no dangers. You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes. For the resistance presented to movement by the air is proportional to the surface of the moving object. Divide an animal’s length, breadth, and height each by ten; its weight is reduced to a thousandth, but its surface only to a hundredth. So the resistance to falling in the case of the small animal is relatively ten times greater than the driving force.




Terminal velocity is a function of (among other things) weight. The lighter you are, the lower the velocity at which you hit the ground, and the easier it is for you to survive.



Wider people



Wingsuit flying is a reasonably popular sport where flyers skydive in a suit with "wings" between the arms and body, and between the legs. These jumps typically end with a parachute, but in 2012, Gary Connery landed a 2,400 ft jump without a parachute, landing on a "runway" of cardboard boxes.



Also, having wings gives you more ability to steer towards softer ground, which is always a plus.



The best enhancements for falling durability are not going to make you bulletproof



Bullets kill by piercing - by applying a large amount of force in a small area, they are able to penetrate the protective layers of our bodies and apply that force to the vulnerable parts of our bodies. That's why bulletproof materials function by preventing the piercing effect and distributing the force over a larger area.



That sort of protection is not going to help against a fall, where the entire area of your body is experiencing the massive forces involved. Conversely, the cushioning and strengthening of the enhancements needed to protect against a fall are not going to do much to stop the piercing effects of a bullet.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 3 hours ago









Arcanist LupusArcanist Lupus

3,5741018




3,5741018












  • $begingroup$
    This is a great answer. The only thing I can think to improve would be mentions of how a humanoid could be more resilient to a high-speed impact. Maybe things like faster reflexes to enable better control of impact angle, more cushioning around vital organs (like the brain), and stronger bones, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. These improvements could allow for good survival odds even with a terminal velocity impact against solid rock. (Severe injury would still be likely in such a situation.)
    $endgroup$
    – Kyle A
    1 hour ago










  • $begingroup$
    The tricky thing about stronger bones is that all else being equal they tend to be heavier. So maybe all else is not equal, and they're made of a material that's stronger by weight than mammalian bones.
    $endgroup$
    – nasch
    18 mins ago


















  • $begingroup$
    This is a great answer. The only thing I can think to improve would be mentions of how a humanoid could be more resilient to a high-speed impact. Maybe things like faster reflexes to enable better control of impact angle, more cushioning around vital organs (like the brain), and stronger bones, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. These improvements could allow for good survival odds even with a terminal velocity impact against solid rock. (Severe injury would still be likely in such a situation.)
    $endgroup$
    – Kyle A
    1 hour ago










  • $begingroup$
    The tricky thing about stronger bones is that all else being equal they tend to be heavier. So maybe all else is not equal, and they're made of a material that's stronger by weight than mammalian bones.
    $endgroup$
    – nasch
    18 mins ago
















$begingroup$
This is a great answer. The only thing I can think to improve would be mentions of how a humanoid could be more resilient to a high-speed impact. Maybe things like faster reflexes to enable better control of impact angle, more cushioning around vital organs (like the brain), and stronger bones, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. These improvements could allow for good survival odds even with a terminal velocity impact against solid rock. (Severe injury would still be likely in such a situation.)
$endgroup$
– Kyle A
1 hour ago




$begingroup$
This is a great answer. The only thing I can think to improve would be mentions of how a humanoid could be more resilient to a high-speed impact. Maybe things like faster reflexes to enable better control of impact angle, more cushioning around vital organs (like the brain), and stronger bones, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels. These improvements could allow for good survival odds even with a terminal velocity impact against solid rock. (Severe injury would still be likely in such a situation.)
$endgroup$
– Kyle A
1 hour ago












$begingroup$
The tricky thing about stronger bones is that all else being equal they tend to be heavier. So maybe all else is not equal, and they're made of a material that's stronger by weight than mammalian bones.
$endgroup$
– nasch
18 mins ago




$begingroup$
The tricky thing about stronger bones is that all else being equal they tend to be heavier. So maybe all else is not equal, and they're made of a material that's stronger by weight than mammalian bones.
$endgroup$
– nasch
18 mins ago










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