Seriously Incredible Water Slide Jump: Please Be Real
This video shows a crazy man launching himself off an epically-large water slide and landing perfectly in a kiddie pool very far away from it. Is it fake? I suspect so, but I really want it to be real.
The site that explains the stunt is all in German, save one vague video in English. Can any German-speakers descipher this and determine its validity? Please don’t dash my dreams. If this is a viral ad for adult diapers or something I’m going to be really disappointed. Although it would be a great way to sell something that helps adults cope with shitting their pants, no? [Megawoosh via Today's Big Thing]
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There’s plenty of buzz on the interwebs about this being fake. Presumably because no one believes that he could land in such a small pool.
However, from a physics perspective, doing the math to allow him to hit that target is fairly trivial. It’s a parabolic slope, gravity is the only force, and there is minimal friction. All of the variables (speed, angle, etc) can be determined from the slope of the ramp and a few trial runs with a deadweight.
I’m willing to believe that the video is not fake.
If that’s a fake, they’ve done a very good job of it.
But I feel convinced it’s very likely to be. That pool at the end, on a wooden platform? Land a foot out and you’re going to smack into some solid wood.
Still. It’s awesome.
it is definately possible if they had a larger target for about 5 goes until they pinpointed the landing. that is they easy way. calculations will get you killed without a practice shot or 2.
I think it’s real because there is a dummy at the base of the ramp which I presume they used for earlier testing.
the speed he was going would have thrown him through the other side of the kiddie pool? much like diving from a jumping board, how deep would you go and hes traveling A. alot faster and B. on an angel
fake
The only thing that gets me is the speed he seems to pick up so quickly on the slide. Looks like fun though!
Totally fake, he lands with such velocity on a particular angle, yet the water splashes upwards.
The logistics of wetting the slide in a way so that the bit you started on hasn’t dried is also another factor.
Good vid though!
Looking at the splash, I would think that there’d be a lot more forward movement on the pool as he lands, especially in the splash of water. At the speed he’s traveling, I’d also expect him to hit the inside edge of the pool with a fair bit of force, pushing the whole pool forward a little (at least making it heave forward a bit).
Looks great, but I don’t think it’s real.
There’s also a nice spot on the ramp where the guy is completely obscured from the camera. This would make it easier to cut/animate the footage.
Oh, well if he’s traveling on an angel then he’ll be fine. The angel will break his fall.
I dont think it is real for the simple reason Matt pointed out – how on earth would you reach those speeds on a relatively gentle slope like that? If you go and watch pro skiers jump from much steeper slides they don’t get nearly that much speed or distance from the end of the ramp.
Would be nice if it was though, but the shallow incline combined with the drag from an irregular ramp like that (plastic over clumps of grass) would slow you down way too much.
I going to go for mostly real. If you watch is a few times he appears to accelerate once in the air, which obviously can’t happen. I think the pool was a lot closer in reality, and some editing makes the jump seem bigger.
Real dude slides down, doesn’t make it all the way to the top, gets obscured by hill. Cg dude launches into air, comes down. Incredible timing
then makes the 2nd dude splash the water inside the pool with his hands or some sort of machine he is sitting on. Then rises out of the pool.
Thats what I think :)
Even the shake of the camera has been faked. If you observe the way the camera pans around you can see it is actually on a tripod which holds it still. The usual camera artefacts of that much movement and shake are not there, even for a very high quality camera – it’s too crisp for the amount of movement seen.
This makes faking the person’s movement on the slide much easier, with a still and steady camera you can lay tracking points on the slide for animation software to put a person on it.
Someone has already pointed out the acceleration especially at the start is way too much.
As already stated too the splash goes directly up rather than off to the right as one would expect from his angle of entry to the water, despite the walls on the pool. Even taking in to account crumple zones and gradual slowdown caused by the water there is no way he could survive such a quick deceleration so unharmed, so unshaken.
He slides down the slide head first, yet when he comes off the ramp its feet first???
fake
Ok.. here’s the deal from the German’s website. His technology is apparently the slide material itself. Jawohl!.. Some low friction mumbo jumbo with electro-magnetism and neoprene underpants. Ze video waz a proof of conzept. He intends to build a monster water slide somewhere (anywhere) then launch pyramids of from German sausage dogs. OK, so the sausage dogs are possibly not mentioned. Fake, real, who knows. All his other website stuff is as vague as the man himself.
The hi pitch whining noise….friction?
or
Remote control car with a doll on top to look like a guy?
If it was real they could have done a closer shot of the guy during the run (they zoomed in at the start)
Obviously fake. Why do you think there is a gap you can’t see from the bottom of the slope to the ramp? And one camera only? It’s some nice visual FX work though.
It’s a lot of trouble to go to just to make a fake. Why would you build the slide, get the anemometer, crash test dummy etc, etc?
I reckon it’s real. I don’t see any obviously bad physics here.
Here’s how he explains it working. in the schematic with the water, the pictures of the neoprene pants etc.
Weight(with a down arrow)
Force + Friction (across) becomes kinetic energy.
He also mentions ‘magnetic force and water’ underneath this, not sure what he means by the magnetic force.
Here’s the first paragraph.
All second thoughts were unfounded. The 35.2 meter distance jump was the first softslide practice test with a real person (me) under real conditions.
I think that even the last doubters were lost for words.
Anyone who would like to dive deeper into the material, here you will find the detailed megawoosh plan structure.
oh, he also says…
“After my first trip it became clear to me that I would have to justify my position for the investors. Many insist that on the matterhorn the slides wouldn’t be open all year round. Because that would be utopic.
However, it was this wonderful beautiful mountain that inspired me to do this crazy idea and for that reason I have planned the waterslide in the same dimensions as the mountain.
But climaticly, and of course economically, there would naturally be better positions for Megawoosh. Places include The Matterhorn, Dubai, Grenada, and London.”
The camera starts off zoomed in, but then pulls back, showing how far it is from the starting point. There would be a significant delay in sound from the top of the slide reaching the camera, yet we hear the water from the buckets immediately, plus the sliding sound, and the impact sound. Not likely they would have microphones at each location. Also, the impact at that speed would have caused injury. Very cool, but fake.
I am not sure the delay in sound is any proof of the video being faked. Would it not be a simple matter to edit the sound to remove the delay?
The only evidence that concerns me is the speed of the man after he leaves the end of the jump. He seems to speed up a little within just a few meters from the end of the jump and possibly gain extra horizontal velocity. This could be an optical illusion though but there seems to be a frame where he suddently moves too far compared with the previuos frames which is quite suggestive of editing.
I suspect that Les is correct in that “If you watch is a few times he appears to accelerate once in the air, which obviously can’t happen. I think the pool was a lot closer in reality, and some editing makes the jump seem bigger.”
Come on everybody really, just enjoy this one! It’s awesome and I want to see more! Trying to explain it is great however especially for kids who often don’t question this sort of footage. Loven it!