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Question:
What is the greatest amount of g forces experienced?


Replies:
I believe that 9 g's is about the maximum for human beings.. at 9g's, most will black out after a few tens of seconds. Since most modern jet fighters can pull at least 9 Gs in a tight turn, this is a serious problem for the Air Force. The early manned-space flight program used to launch astronauts at 9 Gs, the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. The space shuttle is launched at a "comfortable" 3 Gs.

John Hawley

Actually, one can experience much higher accelerations for very short periods of time with little injury - I have heard of up to 100 g's for a fraction of a second. Your body can effectively lower the force by compressing a bit too, so actually no acceleration really acts instantaneously.

Arthur Smith


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