Perhaps seeing is not believing.
If you were in downtown Minneapolis early Saturday and saw the hole in the 17th story window of the Hyatt, and crews working on Joshua Hanson on a second floor overhang, it would be hard to believe he's alive.
But he is and he's in critical condition at HCMC after falling those 15 stories, after police say he was fooling around with friends.
At the hospital, Doctor Steve Smith says, "He's incredibly lucky."
And Physics Professor Serge Rudaz crunched some numbers in his University of Minnesota office. Estimating the distance, and factoring in resistance for say, a sideways fall, he comes up with a speed of roughly 45 to 50 mph.
When Hanson landed the roof gave way, creating a hole, and Rudaz believes that helped break the fall.
Hanson is not alone in surviving a fall of significant distance.
The Free Fall Research Page cites three cases in World War II where three men fell between 18,000 and 22,000 feet and survived. They're falls were cushioned by either snow, trees, or a skylight.
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