How High Could A Man On The Moon Jump?

Are there any mathematicians on this forum willing to calculate their best estimate?

If my calculations are correct, since the gravitational pull on the Moon is 1/6 of Earth's gravity, a 165 pound man would only weigh 27.5 pounds on the moon. He would still maintain the leg muscle mass on the Moon as on Earth. Furthermore, there is no atmosphere to overcome. If a man could jump 15 inches high on Earth. He could jump much higher on the Moon. My estimate is around 25 feet high. What say you?

 

Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkzTLmX3FHs
"MoonFaker: One Giant Leap. PART 1"

 

Interesting. So their estimate was 14 feet. I would have liked to see that on TV in 1969.

 

Got some problems with White's crappola. That it is possible for one to jump higher than that does not mean that it is a good idea. In one scene in the video, one of the astronauts does try to do so and says "Not a good idea." THOSE BACK PACKS ARE HEAVY, EVEN ON THE MOON. Details people!

 

I did a short video in response to that:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxAz5OIzQsU

In a spacesuit that has restrictions all of its own, with the additional mass of the life support system, the precarious way it alters the center of gravity whilst off the ground - are all factors in why jumping high is not a good idea. I do love that hoaxnut claim about being on wires, when the astronauts fell over numerous times and supposedly didn't jump high enough. If they faked it, why not simply show a higher jump!

 

You also said the Chinese spacewalk was real.
http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=321844&page=9&p=1063204261#post1063204261

 

You debunker you. Why would you do that? You miss the point completely.

 

That's because it was

 

Show your calculations and explain the point being "missed".

 

You want me to debunk a debunker? Okay.

I estimate that a white man on the Moon could jump 25 feet. Those are my calculations as explained in the OP. I might be wrong about that. Perhaps a white man could only jump about 15 feet on the Moon while a good jumping black man could probably get 25 feet because gravity is only 1/6 of here on Earth and there is no atmosphere to overcome. The men who went to the Moon could only jump 15 inches like they could do here on Earth. Strange... don't ya think?

 

Not really, they were concerned about breaking stuff, like themselves. If you combine the weight of the man with the weight of the suite you are dealing with the inertia of 235 pounds. Buzz Aldrin and Armstrong were 40 and 39 years of age, so they were not comparatively young men.

Unlike weight, inertia is not affected by gravity. It was actually pretty hard for the Astronauts to get moving, or stop as we saw plenty of times during the missions

 

Let's assume that it's a super lightweight space suit with oxygen system weighing in total no more than five pounds, but even so were that even possible, still I think not. Granted, it's more of a feeling with me than science or mathematics; but nonetheless it seems to me that you have to take into account the amount of time you will be rising above the ground, in that the longer you are in the air the more time that the one-sixth gravity field has to pull down against the rising body. So I suspect that you would rise no more than about twelve to sixteen feet at most. Granted, I am probably wrong.

 

I don't buy this argument. Payton Manning is 37 and he is quite athletic. A 165 pound man on Earth would only weigh 27 pounds on the Moon. Where are you getting an inertia of 235 pounds?

 

Do not confuse weight with mass. 235 pounds of mass remained even in a one sixth gravity field that reduced the weight to 27 pounds. You still have to generate enough force in your jump to overcome the inert MASS of 235 pounds.

 

The suits weighed 75 odd pounds.

 

I'll bet your guess is closer than my estimate. 25 feet is probably too much. I just don't know. I'm having a hard time with the math on this one. There is no air on the Moon. If there was no atmosphere here on Earth, then I believe I could jump twice as high as I can now.... given that I could live without air.. lol.

 

So the suit on the Moon would weigh 12.5 pounds and the man would weigh 27.5 pounds. So we are considering a total weight of 40 pound man with the leg strength of a 165 pound man. I maintain that if I only weighed 40 pounds and had no atmosphere to overcome I could jump at least 10 feet.

I'm not really interested in debunkers in this thread. I am hoping for people good at math to demonstrate their skills and actually do the calculations. I've done mine and posted my estimate in the OP. Do your math and post it please.

 

Hmmm . . . actually where humans jumping on Earth is concerned I think that you can discount the frictional drag factor of air because the human is rising into the air slow enough for the molecules to slide around him (or her). I suspect that the same would be true on the moon. So I think that the primary factor would be time spent with the body rising. Remember that it would not be accelerating once the toes left the surface. All the omph! has already been expended and so the physics should be relatively simple. Unfortunately I don't want to spend time and effort doing the math.

 

Excellent point. Can you elaborate on that? And what effect would no atmosphere have?

 

Thanks for your input. Atmosphere contains a lot of friction. I think atmosphere would play a big role in the calculations.

 

Well acceleration equals force divided by mass (not weight) and so regardless of how much both the man and his equipment weigh it's their mass of 200 plus pounds and not their weight of around 25 pounds that matter in regards to how high the jumper can rise on the moon; well that and MAYBE the amount of time he would be rising through the air. I'm not certain about that part, as I said previously.

So to boil it down most of the propulsive force is going to be expended in initially moving that mass of 200 and something pounds free of the gravity field and therefore it goes a long way in cancelling out the 'advantage' gained in weighing far lesser in a lower gravity field. Or that's my understanding of this anyway. Sorry, but I'm not up to working through the math here and now.

 

This is very interesting. The math to determine this question is out of my league. I do maintain that "no atmosphere" would figure decidedly into the calculation. Are there any mathematicians on this forum willing to give it a try?

 

Well you can try, so where are your calculations?

So it was an estimate? Atmosphere is negligible and irrelevant. The direct equation for time distance and gravity equates to 6 times higher. If you incorporate the additional ability to push with less energy needed for maintaining position, it would be quite reasonable to expect up to 10 times higher.

BUT!!

I've seen a number of answers above, so let me give what I regard as a definitive breakdown. The PLSS and the suit weigh almost the same as the astronaut, making the average Earth total 350-360lbs. Had you watched my short video this was explained. The astronaut is wearing a fairly restrictive suit and has much less ability to bend knees and spring accordingly. He also has close to his body weight on his back and still the same inertia to overcome. Now he can lean forward whilst walking/running etc. to offset this, when in the air there is a very real danger of backward rotation. The video below shows considerably higher jumps than the gentle jump performed by John Young in the jump salute footage - it appears you are unaware of this:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16D0hmLt-S0

See the backwards rotation? Kinda dangerous on the Moon.

Answer this question: With a friend of equal weight on your back, making your total weight 355lbs, how high do you think you could get off the ground? I don't expect you could get off the ground more than a few inches. Transport yourself to the Moon, put a spacesuit on, 2-4 feet is a very reasonable benchmark. So no, not strange at all.

 

http://apollohoax.proboards.com/thread/3028

 

Thanks for the link. That math is way over my head. I found this video from that forum. It looks a vertical jump of 7' theoretically and about 5' in a pressurized suit.

[video=youtube;pJBbIEhWAAE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJBbIEhWAAE&feature=player_embedded[/video]