Bungee jumping

Bungee jumping is an activity in which a person jumps off from a very high
place (generally of several hundred feet/meters) with one end of an elastic
cord tied to his/her ankle and the other end tied to the jumping-off point.
When the person jumps, the cord will stretch to take up the energy of the
fall, then the jumper will fly upwards as the cord snaps back.

The form of bungee most often practised today as a "sport" was first
attempted by the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club, who made an
experimental jump from the 75m (245-feet) high Clifton Suspension Bridge in
Bristol, England around 1970.

Despite the inherent danger of jumping from a great height, several million
successful jumps have taken place since 1980. This is attributable to bungee
operators rigorously conforming to standards and guidelines governing jumps,
such as double checking calculations and fittings for every jump.

Unfortunately accidents in this sport tend to be of the spectacular,
bizarre, and terminal variety. A relatively common mistake is to use too
long of a cord. The cord should be substantially shorter than the height of
the bridge to allow it room to stretch. To illustrate how easy it is to
overestimate the permissible length of cord, consider the following question:

 When the cord reaches its normal length, does one:

    * (a) stop?
    * (b) start to slow?
    * (c) keep getting faster?

The answer, perhaps surprisingly, is (c). One does not even start to slow
until the cord has already stretched somewhat, because the cord's resistance
to distortion is zero at the natural length, and increases only gradually
after, taking some time to even equal the jumper's weight.

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