Live Free or Die Hard - Cop Car Helicopter Takedown

Find out if John McClane is as much of a badass as he wants us to think.

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I wasn't surprised, you can always tell when it's practical effects.

It was a good episode. And had everything it needs, incomprehensible math and a happy ending. Keep it up guys!

SCIENCE!

Love the terrifyingly huge equations xD

just want to say your show is quite quickly becoming my favorite thing on the escapis. Keep up the good work

they should test the bomb+crane+barrelroll jump from "The transporter 2"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew_Jbqrlj2g

Didn't know this was a practical effect but I kinda figured it would possible. Keep it up guys.

I'm less surprised that the stunt is plausible, than the revelation the car would only have to do 90-ish (accounting for all the drag elements) to make that jump. Also, how the hell did I never notice that bottom skid before now? Derp.

'nother fun episode, gentlemen! Looking forward to next week!

Guys...
You do all that math and physiscs and I understand about zero of all the calculations...
Then you say the helicopter is 9m of the ground
Then you say the distance horizontally is 3 times that...
3x9=27 and yet you had 28 in the box down in the right corner at 3minutes56seconds...
*sigh* -.-

Well done otherwise I guess ;)

"So let's see how they actually did it."

Me:

My only problem is that those booths are designed to stop a vehicle on impact. I am glad that you guy continually mention the use of a ramp. In the real world the car would have crumpled into the booth with a mess of gore.

Anakinnnn:

Guffe:
Guys...
You do all that math and physiscs and I understand about zero of all the calculations...
Then you say the helicopter is 9m of the ground
Then you say the distance horizontally is 3 times that...
3x9=27 and yet you had 28 in the box down in the right corner at 3minutes56seconds...
*sigh* -.-

Well done otherwise I guess ;)

Here's why... we said 30 feet or around 9 meters... so then we chose 3x30ft...90 feet..... and 90 feet is 27.432 meters and since it was above 27 meters, I rounded up to "around 28 meters."

Well I still learned in maths that it's rounded up when it's .5 or more and yours still was 27.43 so it STILL should've been 27!!!
/make sure to read that in a very squicky young, very very very annoying small kids voice :D

Nah it was just a small "haha got you" moment for me : )
And yes, you said "about" :P

Still enjoying the show :)
P.S. thanks for also bringing in the metric system :D

With no new Mythbusters airing currently, this is great. And when Mythbusters comes back on, it'll be even better. More science!

However, you forgot one important detail: How likely would McClane survive bailing out of a car at 90mph? I want to know how many bones he shattered, damnit! :p

My only question is the plausibility of John rolling out of a car at 90mph like he does and the man in the helicopter surviving a thirty foot drop onto a moving vehicle, both without any visible injury.

Waffle_Man:
My only question is the plausibility of John rolling out of a car at 90mph like he does and the man in the helicopter surviving a thirty foot drop onto a moving vehicle, both without any visible injury.

Essentially this. You said at the start that you'll be testing to see if he would be able to survive the bail and you never did.

Also If the cruiser had cruise control, then there wouldn't be deceleration between the point that he bailed, and how fast the car would need to be going when it hit the ramp.

Nice video

My only problem with this scene is what would happen if you accually crashed into a toll booth like that and how much that crash would slow you down.
I don't doubt that you could do this with a ramp but I don't think that the toll booth would form that ramp.

Guffe:

Well I still learned in maths that it's rounded up when it's .5 or more and yours still was 27.43 so it STILL should've been 27!!!
/make sure to read that in a very squicky young, very very very annoying small kids voice :D

Nah it was just a small "haha got you" moment for me : )
And yes, you said "about" :P

Still enjoying the show :)
P.S. thanks for also bringing in the metric system :D

But that's not how you round things off when calculating things for engineering.

When you are calculating for things that will be used in real life you should always go safe rather than sorry.

So for instance if you are making a bridge that should take 27.43 tonnes you should round that up to 28 tonnes rather than 27.

Ye gods! You've blinded me with science!

Now how about figuring out how much force it'd take to get an Iron Man suit flying.

ReelPhysics:
Live Free or Die Hard - Cop Car Helicopter Takedown

Find out if John McClane is as much of a badass as he wants us to think.

Watch Video

Where did you get that star wars shirt? I must have it! Tell me what you want from me for that shirt and I will try to make it happen (within reason).

Waffle_Man:
My only question is the plausibility of John rolling out of a car at 90mph like he does and the man in the helicopter surviving a thirty foot drop onto a moving vehicle, both without any visible injury.

Well if we take into account that most police cruisers have cruise control, the speed was much more likely to be 60mph. The ability to survive a bail out at 60mph without some form of protective suit or body armor is dependent on A: How well you roll and B: the amount of exposure your skin took with the pavement. Absolute best case scenario is that John would have fractured 3+ ribs on the side he took the initial fall, plus a strong chance that he would have shattered at least one of his limbs (rotational speed would be much higher than 60mph onto a solid surface like asphalt, means it would likely shatter the bone, not break it). On the other hand, had he been able to do a motorcycle style drop from the car (I.E. on his back and butt) with thick enough clothing (leather or hard plastic), he would have only broken his tailbone and been able to continue on with the movie.

Anakinnnn:

barbzilla:

ReelPhysics:
Live Free or Die Hard - Cop Car Helicopter Takedown

Find out if John McClane is as much of a badass as he wants us to think.

Watch Video

Where did you get that star wars shirt? I must have it! Tell me what you want from me for that shirt and I will try to make it happen (within reason).

I love it too! It's one of my favorites...

Here ya go!!
http://www.snorgtees.com/may-the-mass-x-acceleration

Jason Dean
REEL PHYSICS

Thanks Jason, I am purchasing it now! This will be on my body within the month!

Jason Pullins
Reel Physics Fan

I think its time for another Fast and Furious stunt. How about the double car jump from the start of 2fast 2furious? great show by the way

Valagetti:
It would be great if you guys use different software for the slow-motion scenes to be not so clunky, its really starting to get annoying.

OT: Yeah it would be great if you guys did space stunts, just as a massive challenge and nothing from any Sci-fi.

I don't think it's the software. Rather, most movie footage is at a rather low frame rate, so unless they do interpolation (which would be pointlessly lavish) it will probably look chunky no matter what.

Apparently, the most unreal thing about this stunt is that nobody died.

Anakinnnn:

elementsoul:

Waffle_Man:
My only question is the plausibility of John rolling out of a car at 90mph like he does and the man in the helicopter surviving a thirty foot drop onto a moving vehicle, both without any visible injury.

Essentially this. You said at the start that you'll be testing to see if he would be able to survive the bail and you never did.

Also If the cruiser had cruise control, then there wouldn't be deceleration between the point that he bailed, and how fast the car would need to be going when it hit the ramp.

barbzilla:

Waffle_Man:
My only question is the plausibility of John rolling out of a car at 90mph like he does and the man in the helicopter surviving a thirty foot drop onto a moving vehicle, both without any visible injury.

Well if we take into account that most police cruisers have cruise control, the speed was much more likely to be 60mph. The ability to survive a bail out at 60mph without some form of protective suit or body armor is dependent on A: How well you roll and B: the amount of exposure your skin took with the pavement. Absolute best case scenario is that John would have fractured 3+ ribs on the side he took the initial fall, plus a strong chance that he would have shattered at least one of his limbs (rotational speed would be much higher than 60mph onto a solid surface like asphalt, means it would likely shatter the bone, not break it). On the other hand, had he been able to do a motorcycle style drop from the car (I.E. on his back and butt) with thick enough clothing (leather or hard plastic), he would have only broken his tailbone and been able to continue on with the movie.

Interesting side note... according to my post-episode research and direct feedback from law officials I know in Texas as well as Tennessee, apparently standard police cruisers do not come equipped with the cruise control option. I was told there are exceptions when filling small orders of police cars that dealerships will throw in cars already equipped with cruise control to fulfill the order and take the financial loss on that option, but it is an extreme rarity. So, I am accidentally vindicated in my statement about the car decelerating after he bailed out. LOL! Otherwise, you guys were right about the cruise control issue. Who knows if DC cruisers have cruise control or not... anyone live in DC to verify this?
Thanks again for the great feedback! You guys make me do work on the episodes even after they are released!

And once again, thanks for supporting the show!

Jason Dean
REEL PHYSICS

Not sure, I'm in Florida, and most of them here have it. I guess we can look into the DC side of things. I think you were vindicated in discussing the possibility of deceleration after john bails either way, as it is an important facet in the reliability of your math, so keep on keeping on.

The equations got quite extensive this week...

WE CAN DO BETTER!

New goal... find this movie reel that will produce the largest equation.

Excellent show again!
You guys should teach (if you don't already) at a university and you could use these same examples in the class. Would sure be a helluva lot better than the physics class I took in college. Or do one of those online classes like Udacity--then you could get into more of the nitty-gritty, which I think it's clear you two would love to do!