I want to go for a long drop to try to break my neck and be unconscious within seconds and be dead in ~2 minutes. The drop has to be long enough to avoid a slow death by asphyxiation, and short enough to avoid the rope breaking.
I have a 12 mm (0.47 in) double braided polyester rope that breaks at 2,500 kg (5,510 lb). Because of this I want the force to stay below 12,000 newtons. For the neck to break it has to be at least 3,000 newtons.
I've found that the rope's stress–strain curve is required to determine the peak force at different drop lengths with sufficient accuracy. Unfortunately I don't have that information, which leaves me with a huge uncertainty. A 4 m (13.1 ft) drop could result in a peak force anywhere between 4,000 and 15,000 newtons. That range is simply too large for me to be confident that the rope won't break.
I'm curious to know if any of you have experience with polyester ropes like mine, and their shock load breaking points by any chance. I wonder if my fear of it breaking is reasonable or if I can trust that it won't.
I'd also appreciate general feedback on my plan, as I haven't seen many on this forum go for hanging with a long drop specifically.
More information about my setup in case necessary:
I'm 25 years old, 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) tall and weigh 54 kg (119 lb). I'll tie the rope around an oak tree branch that is 8 m (26.2 ft) above the ground.
For a 4 m drop, I'll make the rope length between the knots 2.6 m (8.5 ft). When standing on the branch, my neck will be 1.4 m (4.6 ft) above the branch and the rope will be hanging loosely down. When I let myself fall down, I will have fallen 1.4 m when my head reaches the height of the branch, and then I'll continue to fall 2.6 m before the rope tightens, which will be 4 m in total. This affects how much the rope stretches, as the 'fall factor' (the rope length divided by the drop length) will be 1.54, causing an even higher peak force compared to when the rope is attached somewhere above you when you let yourself fall.
I'll tie a hangman's knot with 8 coils and place it submentally (under my chin). This leads to hyperextension of the neck and has the highest chance of causing hangman's fracture.
! I'm aware of the British Official Table of Drops. They wanted to prevent beheadings at all cost (crowd would get mad / they wanted executions to be clean), and would rather risk drops that are too low for cervical fracture. This is not the case for me, I want to avoid a slow and painful death at all cost. In any case, according to these I'd have to go for a drop of 3.1 m (10.2 ft) (given they used natural fiber ropes during the time which I believe are less elastic then my polyester rope). I want to go above that, just to be sure, while also avoiding rope breakage. That's why I lean towards a drop of around 4 m.
Thanks for reading :)
I have a 12 mm (0.47 in) double braided polyester rope that breaks at 2,500 kg (5,510 lb). Because of this I want the force to stay below 12,000 newtons. For the neck to break it has to be at least 3,000 newtons.
I've found that the rope's stress–strain curve is required to determine the peak force at different drop lengths with sufficient accuracy. Unfortunately I don't have that information, which leaves me with a huge uncertainty. A 4 m (13.1 ft) drop could result in a peak force anywhere between 4,000 and 15,000 newtons. That range is simply too large for me to be confident that the rope won't break.
I'm curious to know if any of you have experience with polyester ropes like mine, and their shock load breaking points by any chance. I wonder if my fear of it breaking is reasonable or if I can trust that it won't.
I'd also appreciate general feedback on my plan, as I haven't seen many on this forum go for hanging with a long drop specifically.
More information about my setup in case necessary:
I'm 25 years old, 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) tall and weigh 54 kg (119 lb). I'll tie the rope around an oak tree branch that is 8 m (26.2 ft) above the ground.
For a 4 m drop, I'll make the rope length between the knots 2.6 m (8.5 ft). When standing on the branch, my neck will be 1.4 m (4.6 ft) above the branch and the rope will be hanging loosely down. When I let myself fall down, I will have fallen 1.4 m when my head reaches the height of the branch, and then I'll continue to fall 2.6 m before the rope tightens, which will be 4 m in total. This affects how much the rope stretches, as the 'fall factor' (the rope length divided by the drop length) will be 1.54, causing an even higher peak force compared to when the rope is attached somewhere above you when you let yourself fall.
I'll tie a hangman's knot with 8 coils and place it submentally (under my chin). This leads to hyperextension of the neck and has the highest chance of causing hangman's fracture.
! I'm aware of the British Official Table of Drops. They wanted to prevent beheadings at all cost (crowd would get mad / they wanted executions to be clean), and would rather risk drops that are too low for cervical fracture. This is not the case for me, I want to avoid a slow and painful death at all cost. In any case, according to these I'd have to go for a drop of 3.1 m (10.2 ft) (given they used natural fiber ropes during the time which I believe are less elastic then my polyester rope). I want to go above that, just to be sure, while also avoiding rope breakage. That's why I lean towards a drop of around 4 m.
Thanks for reading :)
