You are falling from 1000 feet holding a 30 lb child.

physics/free.fall.throw New

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Problem

You are falling from 1000 feet holding a 30 lb child.  Just before you
hit the ground, could you throw her back up about 15 feet, so that she
lands safely?  When she falls back down, does she hit with the force of
a 1000-foot fall, a 15-foot fall, or somewhere in between?

Show solution

I saw Bugs Bunny survive a drop in an elevator shaft one time by
stepping out of the elevator just before it hit the ground.
Unfortunately, Cartoon Physics doesn't work for me, and presumably
for you or your daughter either.

> Question 1:  assuming an average man (probably more on the stocky side
> than the skinny side), will I be physically able to throw her back up into the
> air while free-falling from 1000 feet, just before I hit?  She weighs about 30
> lbs.

She won't weigh a thing while you are both in free fall.  You would
be able to push her away with the slightest nudge.  She would appear
to you to be floating gently up away from you.  From an observer on
the ground however, you would both be hurtling to the ground at
tremendous speed, although hers would be slightly less than yours

> Question 2: if the answer to question 1 is 'yes', when she falls back down to
> the ground, will she hit with a force of falling from 1000 feet, a force from
> falling 15 feet, or somewhere in between?

Somewhere in between but much, MUCH closer to 1,000 feet than 15
feet.  If you want to cancel the velocity that she has acquired
during her fall, you need to propel her upward with a force equal
to that which, if you were throwing her from the ground, would
send her 1,000 feet into the air.  Even if you could provide such
a force, why bother, the ground is about to do it for you.

-- Ralph Craig <rrcraig@eos.ncsu.edu>