The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #100926   Message #2030178
Posted By: Mrrzy
19-Apr-07 - 02:04 PM
Thread Name: BS: The physics of a fall
Subject: BS: The physics of a fall
Help, you math and physics people.

Say I weigh 85 kilos, and usually walk at about 5 km/hour. But I was running down the stairs when I tripped, so I'm assuming I was going faster than that. And speeding up as I hit.
Upon tripping, I landed - with all my mass times acceleration- on about 3 square centimeters of shin, on the edge of a concrete step - no give at all. So:

How much energy was actually transferred to my leg in the fall?

Now, I basically have a tremendous bruise - my entire lower leg is swollen and the bruising extends to my ankle and half-way up my thigh. The swelling looked for all the world like somebody had shoved an American football into my leg, with the stitching being the little scrape on my shin. All the rest of the injury is inside my leg - I had to have crutches for the first time in my life, I missed several days of work and now that I'm back, it's swelling and painful again (RICE therapy doesn't work at the office). So:

Is it possible that the hydrostatic (lipostatic?) force from all that energy being transferred suddenly to my leg caused something more like a blast injury than a boo boo (the bruise on my shin)?


Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful analysis.