Do things really fall in slow motion, when you drop them?

[CGI_Ram]

I know they don’t. But... It sure seems like it.

Drop your phone... the whole way down... before it hits the ground.... you can count the rotations... you can sing every verse of Bohemian Rhapsody...

Why is that?

Any good stories dropping something, something worthwhile, and watching it fall in slo-mo?

View: https://media.giphy.com/media/ggoGCxI45alM1lSYQ1/giphy.gif

 

[Loyal]

I know they don’t. But... It sure seems like it.

Drop your phone... the whole way down... before it hits the ground.... you can count the rotations... you can sing every verse of Bohemian Rhapsody...

Why is that?

Any good stories dropping something, something worthwhile, and watching it fall in slo-mo?

View: https://media.giphy.com/media/ggoGCxI45alM1lSYQ1/giphy.gif

I think it depends on the value of the thing being dropped, and whether the thing being dropped is broken or lost irretrievably.
A set of car keys falling to the ground falls at normal speed. A set of car keys falling perfectly through the slats of a street drain is the longest drop ever...

 

[RamBall]

I once watched about 2500 lbs of liquor and wine fall when the pallet I was pulling down broke. It seemed to fall in slow motion as I read the labels on the cases, counted the cases of Cuervo gold and Johnny Walker Red fall amongst the cases of Black Velvet, Popov vodka, Crown Royal, Carlo Rossi wine and some other crap all tumble to the floor from about 9 feet. Luckily it happened after I quit drinking otherwise I may have had to kill myself for that major case of alcohol abuse.

 

[1maGoh]

There are studies, or at least a study, that showed adrenaline or some other stuff actually slows your perception of time. That's why car accidents and other "oh shit" moments happen in slow mo. Your brain gets all hyper focused and takes on every detail while your body moves at regular speed able to do nothing helpful. Kind of sick if you think about it.

Edit: never mind. I either misremembered or made that up. Studies don't have a reason. The best theory is a memory trick after the fact.

 

[Neil039]

When I was in LE, we always took initial statements and then went back a few days later. Time tends to bring clarity. My own experiences always seem to slow down when recalling heightened situations. Plus, the oh crap I was lucky to walk away memories kicked in.

 

[Selassie I]

One of my sons was just retelling this story again over the weekend.

We were down in the Keys and we had just pulled in behind the house from catching a bunch of dolphin. The canal behind the house is about 8 - 10 feet deep and the water is crystal clear. My boys and I were cleaning the fish and throwing the scraps and carcasses into the water. All kinds of random fish and nurse sharks were feeding on it. My son is facetimed his friend showing him the catch and the sharks in the water. That's when he dropped his phone. He remembers it being like slow motion when it was falling directly into the water because it wasn't waterproof.

The damn thing fell in and continued to stay connected to his friend. He got to see the sharks and other fish up close because the phone fell right in the area of the scraps we were throwing. Then his friend got to see my son swimming down to grab his phone off the bottom.

The phone never disconnected... and it wasn't damaged at all somehow by the water.

 

[Dodgersrf]

It is an odd, painful feeling.
Everything in your body, appears to be programmed, to tell you how badly you just screwed up. Haha.

This is especially true when crashing on a motorcycle.

 

[bluecoconuts]

One of my sons was just retelling this story again over the weekend.

We were down in the Keys and we had just pulled in behind the house from catching a bunch of dolphin. The canal behind the house is about 8 - 10 feet deep and the water is crystal clear. My boys and I were cleaning the fish and throwing the scraps and carcasses into the water. All kinds of random fish and nurse sharks were feeding on it. My son is facetimed his friend showing him the catch and the sharks in the water. That's when he dropped his phone. He remembers it being like slow motion when it was falling directly into the water because it wasn't waterproof.

The damn thing fell in and continued to stay connected to his friend. He got to see the sharks and other fish up close because the phone fell right in the area of the scraps we were throwing. Then his friend got to see my son swimming down to grab his phone off the bottom.

The phone never disconnected... and it wasn't damaged at all somehow by the water.

Most phones are a little water resistant for at least a few minutes... Mostly for people dropping it in the crapper or being pushed into a pool or something like that... The fact that it remained connected to his friend is really impressive though, shame it wasn't recording, I bet that was a cool view./

 

[Selassie I]

Most phones are a little water resistant for at least a few minutes... Mostly for people dropping it in the crapper or being pushed into a pool or something like that... The fact that it remained connected to his friend is really impressive though, shame it wasn't recording, I bet that was a cool view./

It was really funny. When he came up out of the water with it... his 2 brothers and I were laughing hysterically and loud. He climbed into the back of our boat to grab a towel and try to dry off his phone. That's when he heard laughing coming from his phone too. He couldn't believe it when he saw that his friend was still there facetiming through all of this. His friend was like... "holy shit, suddenly I was seeing fish everywhere and then you swam down and were looking right at the screen". LOL

His friend still brings up the story too because of what he saw on his end... and when he heard me and his brothers laughing our asses off in the background.

He did put that phone in a bag of dry rice that night after it happened. The phone worked fine after with no problems at all. Nobody could believe the damn thing kept working.

 

[rdw]

It is an odd, painful feeling.
Everything in your body, appears to be programmed, to tell you how badly you just screwed up. Haha.

This is especially true when crashing on a motorcycle.

Been there, done that - unfortunately. My motorcycle slid out from under me on the freeway and the subsequent levitation and fall to the pavement were all in slow-mo. Ouch city.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Been there, done that - unfortunately. My motorcycle slid out from under me on the freeway and the subsequent levitation and fall to the pavement were all in slow-mo. Ouch city.

I've never been down on my Harley, but have had plenty of spills on dirt bikes. Along with a few broken bones.
Its hard to explain the feeling of flying through the air in front of your bike. Lol

 

[Memento]

Yeah. Been there, done that, although the story behind it is...painful to recall, mentally.

 

[rdw]

Crashed two times on the freeway. The first time at age 19 I joined the "over the handlebars" club at 55+ mph.
After the second crash, I rode a bit more before deciding it was time to stop tempting fate.
I absolutely love riding but I don't miss it anymore...

 

[RamFan503]

Just today as a matter of fact. I loaded my pressure washer in the back of my truck and there was a rake in the way. When I grabbed the rake, I watched as the thing slowly rolled off the tailgate, dropped to the ground, and unceremoniously bounced around on the ground. Amazingly, it still runs fine.

 

[Juice]

It was the mid nineties, and I was living in Phoenix. The young man in me made me travel far from home, and I was trying to get my feet on the ground in a new place. At the time, I made my money working at a lighting store. I had to work with the warehouse manager and the display manager. So I unloaded trucks and put all the product away, but I had to install everything on the showroom floor that the display manager couldn't handle.

They had everything there, and it wasn't just a retail location. They worked with larger contractor's jobs in and out of Sun Valley. Did I tell you that I had to make deliveries to those guys as well?

Anyway, I was bringing down a crystal chandelier from the section where it belonged (a Phoenix Sun player bought the one off the floor because we were out of stock). I was really tired. I had been partying just as hard as I had been working which was all the freaking time. The ceiling in that section was probably sixteen to eighteen feet from the display floor? The chandelier was retailed at $8,500, and I still think I have the price tag somewhere.

Enough background on this one. I grabbed the chain the chandelier was hanging from with one hand and unscrewed the display base with the other. I unhooked the wrong chandelier! It went pummeling to the ground. The whole time it was thinking, "I am probably going to get fired. My girlfriend is going to be pissed because I haven't giving her rent yet. I guess beers with the boy's it out of the question tonight. Why hasn't that chandelier hit the bilevel glass table (retail $750.00 and I have that price tag somewhere too) that is right underneath it?"

I swear it was the best sound in the world. It seemed like thousands of crystals exploded simultaneously with the table that lied beneath. It was so loud and then it was followed by an uncomfortable silence. While I was standing on the ladder looking down on the complete wreck that I created below, I thought that that was one of the longest instances of my life. The decent of that light seemed like it took forever.

 

[RamBall]

I've never been down on my Harley, but have had plenty of spills on dirt bikes. Along with a few broken bones.
Its hard to explain the feeling of flying through the air in front of your bike. Lol

We used to play gravel tag on out 3 wheelers. One person would try to hit the kill switch on another persons bike and then we would pelt the dead bike with gravel thrown with our back tires. I got my bike restarted just in time to get in the path of my buddy. Our front tires hit and both bikes flipped end over end as we flew right past each other, my buddy flew a lot further than I did. But it all seemed to happen in slow motion, that was my superman moment lol.

 

[CGI_Ram]

It was the mid nineties, and I was living in Phoenix. The young man in me made me travel far from home, and I was trying to get my feet on the ground in a new place. At the time, I made my money working at a lighting store. I had to work with the warehouse manager and the display manager. So I unloaded trucks and put all the product away, but I had to install everything on the showroom floor that the display manager couldn't handle.

They had everything there, and it wasn't just a retail location. They worked with larger contractor's jobs in and out of Sun Valley. Did I tell you that I had to make deliveries to those guys as well?

Anyway, I was bringing down a crystal chandelier from the section where it belonged (a Phoenix Sun player bought the one off the floor because we were out of stock). I was really tired. I had been partying just as hard as I had been working which was all the freaking time. The ceiling in that section was probably sixteen to eighteen feet from the display floor? The chandelier was retailed at $8,500, and I still think I have the price tag somewhere.

Enough background on this one. I grabbed the chain the chandelier was hanging from with one hand and unscrewed the display base with the other. I unhooked the wrong chandelier! It went pummeling to the ground. The whole time it was thinking, "I am probably going to get fired. My girlfriend is going to be pissed because I haven't giving her rent yet. I guess beers with the boy's it out of the question tonight. Why hasn't that chandelier hit the bilevel glass table (retail $750.00 and I have that price tag somewhere too) that is right underneath it?"

I swear it was the best sound in the world. It seemed like thousands of crystals exploded simultaneously with the table that lied beneath. It was so loud and then it was followed by an uncomfortable silence. While I was standing on the ladder looking down on the complete wreck that I created below, I thought that that was one of the longest instances of my life. The decent of that light seemed like it took forever.

That is one HECK of a story. I shared it with my wife... she asked;

Did you have to pay anything back?

Did you get fired? It sounds like no?

 

[Juice]

Thanks, @CGI_Ram. I have a couple more stories from that place. I didn't get fired. The manager of the store was a great guy. He was stern, but from a business standpoint. I could understand that, and we talked about it from time to time. However, I could also see him firing my ass as well. Nothing came out of my paycheck, and I didn't have to pay them back. They wrote it off as damaged, and I was shown what it cost them. They knew I didn't have it anyway. I told them I'd pay it, but it fell on deaf ears.