Posted: 6/2/2008 5:55:41 AM EDT
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A couple buddies of mine and I were discussing hangtime (the length of time a human body can be in the air unaided) and one of them said it's impossible for a human to jump into the air and stay aloft for more than one second. He said there have been studies that have proven this. I called BS and he didn't bother to provide any information. Anybody here have a take on this? |
Horizontal doesnt matter. |
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I searched for high jump videos and timed the world-record high jump. It was a tad over 1.1 seconds from the time his foot left the ground until he hit the mat. Since the landing mat is a couple feet above ground level, I would say he was off the ground for over one second. Of course, some will argue that he did not take off and land on his feet... 
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IIRC Sport Science covered this in their show on the jump/leap. Can't remember how long the guy was airborne - some streetballer with a sick 4'+ vertical leap, b eta: video Hang time is a myth, you're either going up or coming down. Jordan's time was under a second, according to SS your buddy is right. |
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From FSN Sports Science program: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZqVq5LrdQQ humans are limited to less than one sec due to physiology. |
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There is no such thing as "hang time"; whether it's a bullet fired vertically into the air at 3000fps, or a human jumping, once vertical momentum is exhausted the object immediately begins to fall back to earth. Hang time for basketball players is an optical illusion because they're able to do a hell of a lot of twisting and turning during the short time they've left the ground. |