Nigel's 5-second fall to death

[661-Pete]

Yes it's been a week now but I'm still utterly perplexed and beflummoxed by that reportedly 5-second death scream ... far too long for a fall off a typical 2- or 3-story building. So can we have some plausible ( ) explanations for the long-drawn-out scream please?

Actually I make it 4 seconds, listening to this:
[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43IM3vsXOts[/media]


but that still amounts to an 80-metre fall - say from the top of Big Ben or one third of the way up Canary Wharf...

I posted my abducted-by-aliens theory elsewhere, but I have a better idea. Surely they'd recruited him to help do some repairs to Big Ben. Seeing as he wasn't up to the job, they gave him a shove with the recorder running. They're going to play the scream every evening now, in the run-up to the six-o-clock news, instead of the chimes.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I've just remembered, I couldn't give a sh1t...

 

[Aperitif]

He went from the roof into the old, excavated artesian well (hence the 5 seconds) that used to supply water for Joe Grundy's potcheen distillery, supplies of which Nelson used to buy with forged £10 notes that were printed by Shula's half-sister.

 

[Hover Fly]

Here's something else, imagine you are talking to someone, breathing normally, then scream as loud as you can. The longest I can manage is about 1 second, perhaps a bit more. 5 seconds is going to need a good deep breath first. That's supposing falling people actually scream, both the incidents I have seen, one off scaffolding, one a rock climber, have been more a wha... thump. Still, it's for t'wireless, O! f.... dum wouldn't be so dramatic.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

assume he was on the ridge, and screamed whilst scrabbling furiously as he slid off...

...well it's what I did before I hit the parapet and stopped.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I timed it at 2.72 seconds, which would make it a fall of 122ft. He'd have hit the ground at about 61mph. Did he die instantly, or did he linger on for a bit? I expect the reason the scream was so long was because the actor's a hammy old hack who wanted a big exit.

 

[Arch]

Still, it's for t'wireless, O! f.... dum wouldn't be so dramatic.

This.

The most discussed 'line' of dialogue since the shower scene, I reckon....

I remember someone saying in a comedy programme at that time, that Jolene had said "Oh, Sid!" and when Jolene says "Oh. Sid!" a man stays Oh Sidded.

 

[Arch]

Arch's Archers fact of the day:

Tim "David Archer" Bentinck is also the voice of 'Mind the Gap' on the Piccadilly Line.

He is also Earl of Portland.

That's two facts, bargain!

 

[potsy]

Oh excellent, will this be an ongoing event now Arch

 

[ComedyPilot]

An object falling toward the surface of the Earth will fall 9.81 meters (or 32.18 feet) per second faster every second (an acceleration of 9.81 m/s² or 32.18 ft/s²). The reason an object reaches a terminal velocity is that the drag force resisting motion is approximately proportional to the square of its speed. At low speeds, the drag is much less than the gravitational force and so the object accelerates. As it accelerates, the drag increases, until it equals the weight. Drag also depends on the projected area. This is why objects with a large projected area relative to mass, such as parachutes, have a lower terminal velocity than objects with a small projected area relative to mass, such as bullets.


Hope that helps - a 5 second fall would be around 78 metres - so a fall from York Minster would be less than 4 seconds.

 

[PBancroft]

I imagine that falling off a building would almost sound comical: a quick swear, followed by a thud.

Probably wouldn't make good radio. Having said that the actor was incredibly hammy. They may as well have used a Willhelm scream.

 

[661-Pete]

An object falling toward the surface of the Earth will fall 9.81 meters (or 32.18 feet) per second faster every second (an acceleration of 9.81 m/s² or 32.18 ft/s²). The reason an object reaches a terminal velocity is that the drag force resisting motion is approximately proportional to the square of its speed. At low speeds, the drag is much less than the gravitational force and so the object accelerates. As it accelerates, the drag increases, until it equals the weight. Drag also depends on the projected area. This is why objects with a large projected area relative to mass, such as parachutes, have a lower terminal velocity than objects with a small projected area relative to mass, such as bullets.


Hope that helps - a 5 second fall would be around 78 metres - so a fall from York Minster would be less than 4 seconds.

I hadn't factored atmospheric drag into my calculation . Ah, that leads to another explanation - a parachute (or at the very least, he was wielding an unusually voluminous umbrella). Which might explain why we didn't hear the thud. So the question now is, what did poor 'Nigel' land on? Some particularly horrific examples of antique farm machinery come to mind...

 

[Arch]

Oh excellent, will this be an ongoing event now Arch

Sadly, I've run out of facts now!

I do have a soft spot for Tim Bentinck, he was a very dishy cavalier in By the Sword Divided, which was filmed at Rockingham Castle, somewhere we visited when I was a kid.

Oh, here's a related fact. The final episode of series one involved the roundheads overrunning the castle, much death and destruction etc. On the night it was broadcast, the local area suffered a power cut so everyone missed it, and the BBC arranged a special video screening for them later (this was well before iPlayer!)

How do I know so much useless stuff?

 

[ufkacbln]

The real question is would he have survived if he had been wearing a helmet?

 

[potsy]

The real question is would he have survived if he had been wearing a helmet?