Can a Mouse Survive a Fall from a High-Rise?
Mice can survive falls from great heights due to their low terminal velocity. This phenomenon is explained by the relationship between an object's weight, surface area, and air resistance. In contrast, larger animals like horses experience much higher terminal velocities, making them more susceptible to injury from falls.
- ▪A mouse's terminal velocity is about 25 ft/sec, similar to a skydiver with an open parachute.
- ▪Larger animals have a higher weight-to-surface area ratio, resulting in greater terminal velocities.
- ▪Cats have a survival rate of about 90% when falling from high-rise buildings due to their ability to spread their body to slow their fall.
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Can a mouse survive a fall from a high-rise? Probably. In a fantastic essay from 1928 the biologist J.B.S. Haldane famously explained: 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. Why is that? The answer relates to the terminal velocity. Gravity acts on all objects with equal force. In a vacuum both cannonballs and feathers fall at 32 feet per second squared. However, for objects falling through the atmosphere, there is a force opposing gravity: air resistance, also known as drag.
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