A proper way to handle this would be the hero catching them and then immediately rolling a ton of times while still in the air, turning the downward velocity into angular velocity and gradually reducing the momentum. The person may still pass out from the g forces, but they won’t be a pancake.
Another way that works is just to catch them on a downward tangent to their current fall trajectory, but rapidly slowing down and then turning back up. It means your scenario has to have enough vertical space to perform this maneuver, but not necessarily a lot–even a very small downward deceleration will turn death into bruises, because it’s like falling into padding.
Catching and rolling is physically similar to landing on a curved vertical ramp and sliding down it. The motion is not altogether stopped but instead redirected. Rolling is like hitting a tiny tiny ramp so your velocity is redirected at a very high rate, but it’s still better than just instantaneously stopping
Hero swoops in, matches velocity, grabs person, immediately starts spinning with them and slowing down, thus converting their downward momentum into centripetal momentum?
A proper way to handle this would be the hero catching them and then immediately rolling a ton of times while still in the air, turning the downward velocity into angular velocity and gradually reducing the momentum. The person may still pass out from the g forces, but they won’t be a pancake.
Another way that works is just to catch them on a downward tangent to their current fall trajectory, but rapidly slowing down and then turning back up. It means your scenario has to have enough vertical space to perform this maneuver, but not necessarily a lot–even a very small downward deceleration will turn death into bruises, because it’s like falling into padding.
Only the “speed force” or maybe Pym Particles can counteract inertia like that
Wait how exactly does rolling help? I can understand catching the victim sooner to accelerate upwards over a longer time period.
Catching and rolling is physically similar to landing on a curved vertical ramp and sliding down it. The motion is not altogether stopped but instead redirected. Rolling is like hitting a tiny tiny ramp so your velocity is redirected at a very high rate, but it’s still better than just instantaneously stopping
The way I’m imagining it:
Hero swoops in, matches velocity, grabs person, immediately starts spinning with them and slowing down, thus converting their downward momentum into centripetal momentum?