{"id":23464,"date":"2018-07-10T13:31:08","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T17:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=23464"},"modified":"2018-07-10T13:31:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T17:31:08","slug":"ucf-physics-professor-yes-the-rocks-skyscraper-jump-is-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-physics-professor-yes-the-rocks-skyscraper-jump-is-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Physics Professor: Yes, The Rock\u2019s \u2018Skyscraper\u2019 Jump is Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the soon-to-be-released film\u00a0<em>Skyscraper<\/em>, a war veteran with a prosthetic leg sprints across the arm of a construction crane, launching himself in a seemingly insane jump toward the broken, open window of an adjacent building. The building is ablaze, and his family is trapped in a 240-floor building, above the fire line.<\/p>\n<p>Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson plays the hero in the epic leap, and his movie\u00a0<em>Skyscraper<\/em>\u00a0already has the internet talking. After the release of\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t9QePUT-Yt8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the movie\u2019s trailer<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year, skeptics immediately began to question the jump\u2019s feasibility and had everyone asking: Is this humanly possible?<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/physics-bs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UCF Physics<\/a>\u00a0Professor Costas Efthimiou had the same question \u2014 along with strong initial doubts. Efthimiou teaches a popular class,\u00a0<em>Physics\u00a0<\/em>and<em>\u00a0Film<\/em>, in which he examines science at work in science fiction, thriller and superhero movies. His classes have included studies of well-known scenes from flicks such as\u00a0<em>Armageddon, X-Men<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Black Panther<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2>Running the Calculations<\/h2>\n<p>When Efthimiou sat down to carry out the calculations from\u00a0<em>Skyscraper<\/em>, he was surprised to see the laws of physics do, in fact, allow a window of opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>A jump like the one in\u00a0<em>Skyscraper<\/em>\u00a0requires a very specific combination of horizontal and vertical speeds, says Efthimiou,\u00a0<a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/1805.09643\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">whose work on the topic is published in\u00a0<em>Physics Education<\/em><\/a><em>.\u00a0<\/em>\u201cMost scenes and many entire movies defy the laws of the current universe. In this case, the movie\u2019s director was either lucky or had done his homework,\u201d Efthimiou says.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Skyscraper Movie: Can The Rock Make the Jump?\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jSxYJb4wim0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Efthimiou estimated the crane in the movie to be roughly 20 meters in length, enough distance for a person to reach a horizontal speed of 9 meters per second, or approximately 20 miles per hour, before leaving the platform. Efthimiou found that if vertical speed reaches between 3.667 meters per second and 5.467 meters per second, which implies that the peak elevation is achieved between 0.686 meters and 1.525 meters above the crane, the jump is humanly possible.<\/p>\n<p>Efthimiou asserts that the horizontal and vertical speeds needed for the jump would be comparable to a professional sprinter and a professional basketball player, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are a number of factors working against our protagonist in this scenario: his age,\u00a0psychological stress, not having proper running shoes, not having past training for this particular jump,\u00a0to name a few,\u201d says Efthimiou. \u201cHowever, given the character\u2019s peak physical conditioning, professional discipline,\u00a0mental strength,\u00a0personal motivation and determination,\u00a0the laws of physics assert that he has a real shot at making this jump.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Reviewing the Formulas<\/h2>\n<p>Efthimiou intends to be among the first to watch\u00a0<em>Skyscraper<\/em>\u00a0following its July 13 release, and he plans to review his formulas once additional footage becomes available. He\u2019ll include the\u00a0<em>Skyscraper<\/em>\u00a0study in his fall classes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople feel excited when they can explain what they see,\u201d says Efthimiou. \u201cHowever, when I teach my students physics I always tell them\u00a0that science is objective and should not allow their feelings to dominate over reason. They must scientifically verify any claim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/today.ucf.edu\/ucf-physics-professor-yes-rocks-skyscraper-jump-possible\/\">Written by Heather Smith<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the soon-to-be-released film\u00a0Skyscraper, a war veteran with a prosthetic leg sprints across the arm of a construction crane, launching himself in a seemingly insane jump toward the broken, open window of an adjacent building. The building is ablaze, and his family is trapped in a 240-floor building, above the fire line. Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":23466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,39,13,14,28,29],"tags":[800,5833,5835,5834],"class_list":["post-23464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-faculty-news","category-news","category-physics-departments","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-costas-efthimiou","tag-dwayne-the-rock-johnson","tag-physics-and-film","tag-skyscraper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF Physics Professor: Yes, The Rock\u2019s \u2018Skyscraper\u2019 Jump is Possible - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-physics-professor-yes-the-rocks-skyscraper-jump-is-possible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Physics Professor: Yes, The Rock\u2019s \u2018Skyscraper\u2019 Jump is Possible - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the soon-to-be-released film\u00a0Skyscraper, a war veteran with a prosthetic leg sprints across the arm of a construction crane, launching himself in a seemingly insane jump toward the broken, open window of an adjacent building. 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