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It has come to my knowledge that a froghopper (aka 'spittle bug') uses its inbuilt catapult mechanism to exert an upward force that is 414 times its body weight.
Presuming that said froghopper was (1) as tall as a human and (2) fell on a trampoline (unlikely, I know), how high could it bounce?
Questions like this - if not properly answered - can really spoil my day...
the tramapoline would stretch too far and hit the ground so can be ignored in calculation
The trampoline's legs - by the way - are placed on high cliffs so that the trampoline proper is situated above a bottomless chasm.
I suspect it can jump less from a trampoline as the trampoline will deflect downwards [ opposite and equal reaction]when it pushes off. From a solid base this wont happen and more of the force goes into the jump.
I'd imagine hitting anything at the sort of velocity it would be going on the way back down would tend to cause it to 'splash' rather than just hit it and bounce?
small creatures have a big advantage when falling in terms of surface area:volume ratios that somethign as massive as a human doesn't.
Depends on timing, if it fell on the trampoline and the bug waited until the trampoline was fully flexed upwards and then used its mechanism, it may well send it super high, or like someone else said, if the downwards force was greater than the upthrust of the trampoline then they would cancel each other out and the height reached would be less than off solid ground.
Mmmmm, experiment needed.
Bit of a stupid question really, I'm no trampolining expert, but I think you do use your legs, rather then just go completely rigid, so depends on whether or not you have the same jumping power when you hit the trampoline, or whether your legs would break, etc.
Also whilst that force gives you an acceleration of about 4000ms^-2, it depends on the impulse, the time that your legs are actually in contact with the ground at the time of jump, giving you that acceleration. Say 0.1s, then you'd leave the ground going at 400ms^-1 (breaking the sound barrier, you'd destroy your face) I think you'd reach a rough maximum height of about 8000m (8km) ignoring air resistance. But I'm still in bed, and a bit sleepy, so I may have done something very stupid.
So you'd easily hit terminal velocity on the way down (ok, I know we've ignored air resistance up until now, but whatever). So imagine if a skydiver's parachute didn't release and he hit the trampoline in your back garden. It would be messy.
it'll jump as high as the moon. medical FACT.
Yeah what Realman said
Its a pointless calclation without knowing how long its accelerating for
Just to clarify, this is an intelligent froghopper who knows everything there is to know about trampolines.
(If it helps, he also has a parachute and - although he doesn't know what they are yet - a pair of rocket boots).
An S-Works Froghopper would go even higher.
Thanks, Phil. Now I can rest easy.
Assuming you don't destroy yourself, you'd destroy the trampoline. It would either rip, or go past the point of elastic deformation (I think that's what it's called), and start deforming plastically. Basically it would stretch, but not return, so it wouldn't be bouncy.
Although most likely you'd just obliterate the frame.
You might as well ask what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, it's just as silly.
2'8" if my figures are correct. Would all depend on wind speed or summink. And gravity.
Is there a prize for this?
2'8" sounds low, but I'm willing to concede the point, since (as RealMan points out) this is a silly question.
If there's a prize, it'll probably be a trampoline that's passed the point of elastic deformation and a froghopper with a migraine.
😀
i do like this camo16 chap, nice to have a fellow interlektual on this godforsaken den of dummies and fools.
What about if you put the trampoline on a conveyor belt/ running machine. would it still take off?
Camo, I rounded down...
My little boys birthday today, he'd love a trampoline thanks. 😀
What if it was on a treadmill?
you could tie one end of a bit of bungie cord to the things leg and the other end to the middle of the trampoline so that you'd be sure it hit the trampoline dead centre on the way back down.
HTH
The solutions mooted ^^^^^ all deserve serious thought... by someone intellectual like me (cheers Phil)!
When the experiment is over, konaboy2275, I'll try to salvage whatever I can from the trampoline for your boy... does he have any use for a dazed froghopper, or should that be second prize?
Really high.
It would be worth figuring out what addition to vertical height the trampoline affords. Is it a linear addition of force or exponential based on weight/mass to the point of failure of the trampoline.
I guess in the way coil spring rate follows a curve, so would bugman's resultant flight.
Wikipedia (I know, I know) says up to 70cm high jumps are possible. Let's say they're 5mm tall, that's 140 times their height. Let's imagine bugman is 178cm tall, his jump is 24920 cm.
Wait a minute, is a trampoline's effect based on it's deflection x force exerted by legs?
Hmmm. For the sake of closure I'm calling the trampoline effect a neat round double the input.
Therefore 49840cm.
This also excludes shape of arc travelled, aerodynamics, this, that and the other.
Herman: Respect.
Now, can you tell me what happens if you tie a solipsistic mole to the arms of a wind turbine?
thats how the first Dyson was invented. medical FACT.
I've been thinking about this for quite a while now....
Sir Jimmy Dyson a mole molester? Sweet Jeez the FACTS you pick up on STW...
Other questions that bother me:
Can you peel an eel?
The alternative form of this conundrum is:
If you're thinking about conspiring with an assortment of slippery cohorts, will your eel squeal?
Then, there's this:
What happens if you attach an antelope to a bungie? Does the bungie get spongy, or does the antelope get gungy?
As long as [i]you[/i] tie the mole to the turbine, it's all good. Otherwise it just isn't there. Oh, and neither are you.
Other than aiding an eccentric generation of electricity, the introspection of said subterranean mammal will result in a moley g-gasm (an orgasm created, nay, accelerated by g forces of 8 and upwards) of exactly 1.
if I fell on a trampoline my legs would be pointing in the wrong direction to bounce at all, so it'd be dependent upon the tension of the trampoline and how ahem, heavy I am.