How High Is This Cliff, and Why Would You Jump Off It?

The internet has always been a great source of physics problems. Check out this video. It’s sort of crazy. (Hat tip to @fnoschese and @maalmeida85 on Twitter)

So what kinds of questions can you ask with this video? How about the following?

• What would make some think this is a good idea?
• How high is the cliff?
• How far horizontally did he travel during the jump?
• What is his speed when he impacts the water?
• Estimate how deep into the water he went along with the average stopping acceleration (these are connected).
• What about that scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier where Cap did something like this from a plane? How does this jump compare?
• How much influence does the air drag have on his final speed? Is it safe to just ignore it?
• Can you measure the speed of sound from this video? (I bet you didn’t see that one coming).

OK, let’s get started. I’m probably not going to answer all these questions — but you can finish whatever is leftover.