The Wild Trees: Injury, Safety, Death

[lxt]

If the book is semi-popular, Amazon probably has a review.

But would you like to paraphrase or explain what it's about in a paragraph or two?

I like to read.

why would you want him to paraphrase the book? M.D...Im sure you have read it, you like to read!! you seem to have a lot of book knowledge!!, so im just curious as to if the asking for the paraphase is for; entertaining a possible purchase or so you can tell him his interpretation is wrong & go off on some explanation why in an attempt to make yourself look intelligent.


LXT................

 

[Burvol]

I don't care for Nascar, but you guys have obviously never seen what goes into developing those machines.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

It's not a tall tail. Preston is the most serious fact checker on the planet, his excellent reputation as a writer is based on it. He is extremely thorough.

I've only been in doug fir old-growth forest one time but I was impressed that there was not a clear point where you could say that the soil began and ended, the surface and subsurface was a porous tangled web of roots large and small, fern mats, rotted wood, mosses etc. I can see how it could absorb a fall.

That's a good point.

The soil really changes under some of those trees after many years, and it does seem to be soft beneath the needle layer.

Even the rotted twigs become soft and spongy.

I don't recall the book mentioning ivy, but it's common in Portland's west hills where that happened. The ivy gets thick like a soft mattress sometimes. But that's speculative. I only recall the duff being mentioned.

 

[moray]

the big fall

You can get some feel for the necessary softness of the forest floor by making a calculation. First the assumptions:

Assume, because limbs slowed his descent, he actually fell the equivalent of 80 feet.
Assume he landed on his back, the best survival attitude.
Assume he could survive 46g of deceleration. This is the maximum recorded by Colonel John Stapp during his rocket sled tests in the 1950's. He was facing forward for the record test because he was interested in pilot survival in actual crashes. There have been survivors in race car crashes where the calculated accelerations were far above 100g.
Assume the ground causes uniform deceleration, i.e., it produces exactly 46g of acceleration until the falling body is stopped.

Then the body will sink 21 inches into the decelerating sponge of material at the base of the tree.

If we assume instead that the deceleration uniformly increases from zero to a maximum when the body stops, and that maximum is 46g, then the body will sink 42 inches into the sponge.

The numbers certainly seem plausible to me.

 

[moss]

Another variable to factor in is that he actually thought about it as he was falling and intentionally punched the ground at impact to protect his neck from breaking. He shattered his forearm (and wrist I think) which took something off the impact to his vital organs. Breaking ribs also absorbed shock (the rib cage doing its job). Can't remember what else broke, pelvis maybe, possibly a leg. Not a pretty or predictable way to survive. It was not survivable without timely advanced medical care.
-moss

 

[techdave]

get some Moray, nice calcs

Good to see someone applying some physics to the bull session Homey!

 

[Adkpk]

Moray, good to hear you read the baron.

I see, I stand corrected. Moss I could tell Preston did his homework. (I think moray does his homework too.) One of the things that is amazing about the book is it's chocked full of interesting details. It was great how well he wove the story.