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xkcd #3039: Human Altitude (xkcd.com)

submitted 3 days ago by Iron_Lynx to c/xkcd

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Alt text:
I wonder what surviving human held the record before balloons (excluding edge cases like jumping gaps on a mountain bridge). Probably it was someone falling from a cliff into snow or water, but maybe it involved something weird like a gunpowder explosion or volcano.

Explainxkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3039:_Human_Altitude

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The pre-1800 numbers sound too low. There are lots of old buildings much higher than 10 meters high, and I doubt they were all unoccupied at the same time.

[–] kerrigan778 18 points 3 days ago

If you look at the description of the data ie. That falls are considered to be gaining altitude not losing altitude, they seem to be referring to distance from solid object connected to ground not distance from ground or sea level. So mountains and buildings don't count unless you jump off of it.

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