Could You Survive Just Cause 4's Grappling Hook?

From Batman to Link, Just Cause 4's Rico adds to the ranks of grappling hook wielding heroes, but could the human body actually handle it? Kyle grapples with the concept on this week's Because Science!
Thanks to Just Cause 4 for partnering with us on this video!
Grab your new Because Science merch here: shop.nerdist.c...
Subscribe for more Because Science: bit.ly/BecSciSub
More science: nerdist.com/top...
Watch more Because Science: nerdi.st/BecSci
Follow Kyle Hill: / sci_phile
Follow us on FB: / becausescience
Follow us on Twitter: / becausescience
Follow us on Instagram: / becausescience
Follow Nerdist: / nerdist
Because Science every Thursday.
Learn more:
• PARACHUTE AND HARNESS G LIMITS: bit.ly/2SrdqVk
• SHOULDER DISLOCATION FORCES: bit.ly/2QgYgFs
• HUMAN TOLERANCE TO ABRUPT ACCELERATIONS: bit.ly/2Ug6JXY
• NASA CENTRIFUGE TOLERANCE: go.nasa.gov/2Q...
#becausescience #justcause4

[@becausescience]

Thanks for watching! This one was a lot of fun. Get your nerdiest comments in, in time for the next Footnotes. It's been a hell of a year so far, and I'm working on something right now that should blow your mind early next year. Stay tuned! -- kH

[@simplyfateh8222]

mean rico's grappling hook

[@emmanuelbrioche6582]

I feel that MatPat already did this... ...No it was something similar using Link's grappling hook. But (In case you read this), I gave away all of my dead batteries... ....Free of charge :)

[@AlvaroRM90]

We are hooked to this channel.

[@WROB3L]

If we're talking about vidya games. GRIP: Combat Racing! Get on it Kyle! There's science to be done there!

[@ghillieinthemist593]

Can we talk about just how fast his grappling hook shoots out? Looking back at the footage of the plane scene, the hook seems to take anywhere from .1 to a full second to travel from Rico to the plane. Assuming the plane is at least a 1000 feet from Rico, that puts the speed of the hook anywhere from 1000 ft/s to 10,000 ft/s something similar to a bullet. This means that any attempt to hook on to a plane or helicopter risks shooting straight through the aluminum body. This could be explain how the hook attaches, but everything found on the wiki explain that the hook is magnetic, which goes to say that if you fired it you would: 1 punch through what you aimed it at similar to a 9mm, 2 can only attach to ferrous/ magnetic materials, and 3 shoot through any living thing, likely killing them, and then not be able to zip line to them, as that much force on the line would just cut through them.

[@hacksmith]

Challenge accepted! Just kidding. Though I am aiming for 2.5-3m/s, so twice as fast as the Atlas!

[@_leo.png_3208]

FIRST TO COMMENT ON YOUR COMMENT

[@_leo.png_3208]

Noice do

[@stoplookingatmynamelol595]

Would actually be awesome if you could make this. Might be hard but what if you put two electrodes on the end of the grapple so you can tase people from a distance. Might be hard. But it would be a cool challenge!

[@almondpotato9483]

whooaaaa the holy hacksmith... watch in wonder as he invents and creates in his wild habitat: The Workshop

[@insanehum987]

Yes

[@ryankunst668]

Kyle: "Could you survive Just Cause 4's grappling hook?" Me, a big fan of Just Cause: "Hell no."

[@The_Sleepiest_Socialist]

I don’t want to ruin the 69 likes.

[@ImGonnaShitYourPants]

@@The_Sleepiest_Socialist veri funi Funi Funi Funi

[@TheDumbTwin]

My thoughts exactly

[@denlara3882]

I think my favorite thing about the Just Cause grappling hook is the impossible physics in doing a freefall from a jet, no parachute, then grappling the ground and pulling yourself down even faster to land safely, only because grappling hook.

[@probably_seohyun]

It would cancel out right? I mean swing from a building, then you would slow down enough to land...

[@hrothgardevaitos8330]

@@probably_seohyun Not really, since he's grappling himself DIRECTLY INTO the ground, not swinging off a building. He's accelerating himself faster into the ground, and it somehow makes it safer. The man is a freaking wizard.

[@probably_seohyun]

@@hrothgardevaitos8330 If so, then swinging from a building could slow him down enough to land, Right?

[@juntingiee2602]

The just cause games don't care bout realistic

[@hrothgardevaitos8330]

@@probably_seohyun It could, except you'd still be pulling a ridiculous amount of gs. It would still be safer than hitting the ground directly, though, but not THAT safe.

[@DaCreepNextDoor]

I’d love to see kyles take on the Titanfall 2 grappling hook ability! That one, while still unrealistic, seems much more grounded in physics and it even takes into account gravity. Also since you’re in a suit it does seem at least slightly practical.

[@Will-Woll]

What about an exoskeleton style rig from your "grappling arm" going across the rest of your body. So the force would be more distributed rather than just ripping your tendies out...

[@Will-Woll]

Obviously the G's would still have to be reduced for long grapples but it could be feasible to grapple an enemy (ouch) then rapidly accelerate you both toward each other and land a Sick-Awesome EXOSKELETON KICK!!!!

[@JoshuaHillerup]

At that point you would use the safety stats for being in a harness or centrifuge or whatnot.

[@elvfrem]

Sort of like the one from Xcom? The idea been implimented and tried by Darpa, without a doubt, just cannot recall fully how they did it but in short.. It didnt work out well enough due to the weight of the cable and the amount of it they had to carry around for it. Doable though if you spread the forces out more and also make it a lot slower

[@Will-Woll]

@@elvfrem damn, I suppose the weight would get pretty high with steel cable... Perhaps a VERY short range cable that could still be used in fighting even if it wasn't useful for movement?.. That or just go full spiderman 😂

[@maggondatreides4783]

My thoughts. Grapple hook your opponents chest or deltoid, reel him in for the finisher. Dont break the trophies.

[@redgreenkomayto867]

Kyle should do a video about what would happen if you're heart grew three sizes like in the Grinch for Christmas

[@becausescience]

...This is already on my list heh -- kH

[@bradywells1293]

There's lots of goofy physics in the grinch now that you mention it. The weight the dog pulls, the ability to hear Whos singing from the top of the mountain, his ability to get up and down chimneys, and even the fact that the whole thing takes place on a single snowflake O.o

[@edmckenzie1816]

I 2nd that

[@ViniSocramSaint]

You would get a diagnosis of American trypanosomiasis probably By the way this condition is called cardiomegaly

[@majormojo9830]

Yaaaaaas

[@maenethal6559]

Suggestion for a video: Is it possible to redirect an arrow/bolt back at a shooter using a sword like Geralt in the Witcher games?

[@Incred_Canemian]

So basically the Adam West version grappling up a buidling would be the most practical out of all incarnations of Batman

[@buckysrevenge]

Didn't he hold it in his hand? At least Michael Keaton's attached it to his waist

[@two-face1041]

Incredible Canemian that actually wasn’t a grappling hook...it is a Batarang with a rope attached

[@kylo-juju3796]

yup, and the safest one

[@aaronbourque5494]

Batman also uses his grappling gun to swing between buildings all the time in the comics. He uses it for that most often, really. The question becomes how it fastens and then releases easily. Magnets? Electronically controlled closing and opening claws, like the item-grab game? Sticky goo, that somehow loses its stickiness in a second or two only to regain it a second or two later? Most likely, the "out of sight, out of mind" answer. As long as it happens off-panel, it doesn't matter how it works...

[@becausescience]

....Yes -- kH

[@MechanicalChaos]

In theory? No, mythbusters did the bullet fired-bullet dropped, and got the timing perfect and in reality a bullet fired does hit the ground at the same time as a bullet dropped.

[@kilrath81]

I dont understand how this is possible do to possible bouyant forces. The bullet that drops only has to accelerate at the speed of gravity while contending with displacing the air below it. When a bullet is fired it is rifled for spin and built to be aero dynamic at its front. This should in effect negate gravity a touch because it could have a lifting force being applied to it.

[@johan.ohgren]

@@kilrath81 that depends on the angle of the shot. A fired bullet will eventually loose all the energy from it's launch, at which point it will fall just as a dropped bullet.

[@massimocole9689]

@@johan.ohgren It does not have to lose all its energy from its launch to begin falling. If the bullet is fired horizontally it begins falling right away. Sure it has a lot of sideways motion, but that does not help with falling vertically at all.

[@johan.ohgren]

@@massimocole9689 True, but if you fire horizontally it needs to travel a huge amount of distance before it slows to the speed of a dropped bullet, and by that time it will likely have hit the ground or another obstacle at a higher speed than a dropped bullet. Where you to fire the bullet up in the sky the bullet will climb as far as the energy lets it, and will then free-fall back to the ground at the speed of a dropped bullet. Also, fired horizontally, it will have less distance to travel in altitude difference which means it will keep more of it´s punch, and be more deadly.

[@massimocole9689]

@@johan.ohgren I was comparing falling time not speed. Yeah a horizontal bullet will still be moving fast horizontally, but it will hit the ground at the same time as the dropped bullet if there are no obstacle in the way. Also if a bullet is fired into the sky it will be going quite a bit faster than the dropped bullet since it will fall from a greater height (unless both of them were falling from so high they reached terminal velocity) I'm not sure what you meant by a horizontal bullet having "less distance to travel in altitude difference", but yeah it will of course be more deadly than a dropped one, I was just comparing the times it takes for them to hit the ground.

[@jpobi9880]

Well, time to mess with the human genome to make us durable enough to be Rico or Batman....

[@david18cruz1989]

thats is were crispr come in

[@isamuddin1]

Well you can find a person with bones stronger than concrete and try extract his gen first

[@jenjenhocho3188]

Or try getting bit by a radioactive spider 😋

[@lotsoflambdas]

@@isamuddin1 bones are actually per mass stronger than concrete or steel. we just have less of them than you think

[@t4rv0r60]

video idea: how fast must santa claus travel to deliver all presents to all kids on earth?

[@jackychang9148]

I think that's been done to death.

[@Xander_P.G.K]

Watch Lemmino's video on Christmas. He does a bit at the end on how fast Santa would have to go.

[@luizgustavosilvasa8614]

Pepa pig?

[@HORRIOR1]

There are like 40 different things you could make a Because Science video about in Just Cause, and we go for the grappling hook. Not even how the wires are capable of pulling things together all by themselves. I am only complaining because I want MORE Just Cause Because Science episodes XD

[@arghnoor]

I have always had a problem with them being about to pull them selves together i mean where is the thing pulling it together, where is the cable going i mean it is like when it retracts it disappears, and how is Reco carry all that cable in such a little space, and that would be really heavy. But i mean what is more unrealistic is the mech's grav arm, but i mean i love all the games so i will forgive it for its grappling and mechs,

[@Zarlos01]

@@arghnoor Reco carry his cables in the same way that Lara do which the rope she uses

[@MagicGonads]

But how does the SOTM fit in the terrarian's pocket?

[@illoney5663]

Just Cause Science* Fixed it for you.

[@cpt.caboose1771]

Grappling hook uses anti-gravity.

[@tregi]

The first time you dropped the marker, assuming it stopped moving when you started going down to pick it up and assuming it didn't make a sound cause it fell on something soft, it fell for 110 frames or 4.583 seconds. If we use the equation for freefall we get 105.035 meters of distance. When you started going down to pick it up you went the same distance in 20 frames or 0.83 seconds if we assume you weren't moving in the cut. Going 105 meters in 0.83 seconds you need an average speed of 126 m/s which you seem to acquire in 8 frames or 0.3 seconds putting a G-force of 42gs on your body. The answer to everything truly is 42 :D also, you should be dead from that much gs ;)

[@cpt.caboose1771]

Let's just say that he uses anti-gravity grappling hook.

[@anyoyorange5421]

Eh?

[@Seamus.Harper]

Why can you survive the grappling hook in Just Cause 4, you ask? Easy,... ...just cause.

[@user-lw5oc1tt8k]

was this a failed joke?

[@cherrydragon3120]

Lol

[@Strange_Man1911]

Just cause 4 whatever reason

[@ggmasterguiltygear6315]

That joke was sooo corny that i laughed anyway.

[@shredgordon3240]

It also takes thousands of bullets to kill him

[@arvindgouttumukkala7263]

Just a small correction. When calculating the acceleration that Rico experiences, you use his average velocity as his max velocity, but that is only the case when he doesn't accelerate to get to his average velocity. If you assume he starts at ~0 m/s and accelerates for ~0.88 s (based on your calculation), his max velocity is ~53 m/s and he experiences close to 5,000 N of force, which is significantly larger. Thanks for getting my brain thinking early in the day.

[@Will-Woll]

*pulls out DnD 5th edition rulebook to look up grappling rules*

[@jackielinde7568]

Pair it up with featherfall spell, and you should be fine.

[@aaronbourque5494]

As long as it's not the rules from earlier editions...

[@joeyuzwa891]

“i intimidate inertia to keep myself from dying” “mmmmm roll for it” “rolls a nat 20” “i’ll allow it. you gloriously sail through the air”

[@isamuddin1]

Soo can i kill goblin with spinning top?

[@Mongward]

@@joeyuzwa891 this is something you could technically do in another RPG system: Exalted.

[@connormcgrath5800]

OFF TOPIC: I recently watched Total Recall (2012), and I was wondering if a person would be able to survive ‘The Fall’ considering it travels through the center of the Earth, which is about 7,926 Miles in diameter, in about 10-20 minutes. When the guy plants the bomb at the start of the trip, he sets the timer for 15 minutes. And after the trip is over, the timer still has around 4-5 minutes left. That would mean they would have to be traveling about 31,704mph. And factoring the remaining time on the bomb, it would be more around 47,556mph. Which is nearly double the Escape Velocity of Earth. I know this has nothing to do with grappling hooks, but I would really appreciate it if this were discussed in a future video. Thanks for all the work you guys do!

[@CyberianFaux]

Kyle, would the wing-suit have any effect on the amount of force experienced? I don't know if I am looking at the wrong kind of real world example with this but I thought that it would be similar to an airplane or glider where pulling forces cause lift due to the wing's designs. Maybe the lift generated by those could even make someone basically a human kite due to how the force would be distributed against the human body and wings. I am highly curious, since he has the wing-suit under his arms the entire time even when not fully opened, and I thought it may even cause the opposite problem of too much lift that takes them farther away from their intended target location. Maybe lift forces would be something worth mentioning in footnotes?

[@retrodigi375]

Love doing that 8n the game

[@conny8270]

What about jumping into direction he is going to be pulled, this could minimize the difference into a safe area :)

[@dcparodies1977]

Why does the marker fall? you are in a void and you demonstrated there is nothing under you whan you let the marker fall. I wonder, if there is nothing under you, why wouldn´t the marker go towards your center of mass? Furthermore, it seems like the marke falls "downwards" with the same acceleration it would have on earth. Why is that? What is going on? Also, if the marker could somehow fall down due to the fact tthat there is something very massive very far away, why aren´t you "falling"? In that case the marker woudn´t fall, but float, so again, What is happening? Are you ignoring this in order to make a joke? Or is the void so uncomprehensible that fisics as we know it doesn´t matter?

[@trudru1]

"fisics" lol thats why

[@elijahd-helzer4765]

My theroy is that the void respond to Kyle's subconscious thoughts and affect him and his surroundings accordingly. Like in the video when Kyle dropped his marker he subconsciously did not want to fall himself. In response to his desire to remain stationary and to make a joke the void created a "pocket void" for the marker with a significantly large mass at the opposite end of it to pull the marker towards it. Thus allow for the joke. This theory is further supported by the many times Kyle has summoned objects from the void( i.e hair products, Thor's hammer, the cold axe, and so on) and accidentally got something else. In conclusion while in the void pretty boi Kyle is at least a demi-god and can manipulate his surroundings at will. now all Kyle has to do is learn how to control this awesome power.

[@daddyike5676]

Dude, what type of weed are you taking?

[@Will-Woll]

Well, if he's in a "void" and is a functionally infinite distance from another gravity well then.. The marker is falling toward his own centre of mass. You could also roughly determine his mass based on the acceleration of the marker. (assuming he's human sized and we're not talking about cosmic scale markers and smart-boys)

[@DarqStalker]

Fisics in the void react to the way the interpreter interprets them. You interpret it as the marker falling. I see it as Kyle floating up as he releases the marker and the camera stays focused on Kyle.

[@MaxRovensky]

“Because Duh, and also Science” 😂

[@BassmanProducciones]

6:15 Would have been funnier if when you dropped the marker it would come back from above, Because Void.

[@rpgtimefire]

Anybody rememeber the attack on titan episode? Yeah exactly

[@jburroughs2922]

Or how about the infamous Warhammer 40k episode.

[@kylo-juju3796]

i was about to mention that!! the grappling hook is exactly the same thing with the tridimensional maneuver equipement, the g-force will be deadly or near to that

[@jonsmith8636]

@@jburroughs2922 Which one was that?

[@01oo011]

J Burroughs when did he ever do that?

[@rpgtimefire]

@@jburroughs2922 yes that episode is classic.

[@axe693axe]

Question, would wearing a gliding suit help with the problem of gravity using air resistance ?

[@patrickdelaurentiis6752]

Since you're covering the Just Cause grappling hook physics, I'd love to see you cover the magnetic grappling device as shown in PlayStation game Wild 9.

[@tiagotiagot]

If you were in a free fall, you would not be feeling any acceleration. Well, except maybe the drag of Jupiter's dense atmosphere may counter the free fall enough for you to feel a fraction of it's gravity. But then again, the turbulence and strong winds may accelerate you in all sorts of ways. Does anyone got the numbers?

[@orealz]

Saw the title and it immediately reminded me of game theory's take on the subject featuring link's grapple hook.

[@skyrimax]

But Link's grappling hook is a bit more... extreme xD

[@becausescience]

I actually disagree with MP's numbers, but idea is the same -- kH

[@roguebanshee]

Falling at terminal velocity? Just grapple the ground!

[@Oithissucks]

Kyle! Great vid as always. But I'm curious if Rico's world has different gravitational constraints. Everything in the world seems lighter, judging by the rag-doll physics. Almost in a perpetual state of free fall after they have been hit, exploded, shot, whatever antics in which Rico partakes. I wonder if there's a way to figure that ratio compared to our own world.

[@mlok4216]

Just spawn a vehicle or sth else on a building, where you know the exact height of that building. Let the car fall and count the time it took. Then you can use the free fall formula stating: h = 1/2 * g * t^2, but since you need the g, then g = (2*h) / t^2, where h is the height of the building in meters and t is the time in seconds. Since you want to know the ratio, divide that number you'll get by 9.81 m/s^2 and you will get exactly what you need ;) Happy physicsing =)

[@JeremyWS]

I have a solution that could make fictional grappling hooks a reality, exoskeletons. An artificial exoskeleton would make these fictional grappling hooks a lot safer. So there's your solution. Great video, keep up the good work. Have a nice day/night.

[@kendallcarlson3572]

Not really. The G forces would still be a problem.

[@nikezor1]

Yeah, going from the example kyle in the beginning of the other half of the episode with how much you have to take to get somewhere and not scrape your face off against the ground then everything inside your body would be mush from all those G's xd

[@JeremyWS]

Oh c'mon people stop ruining my dreams of being Batman irl.

[@Bradyboy26]

batmanfanforever08 you can be Batman irl but more Adam West Batman than any other

[@cpt.caboose1771]

Grappling hook uses anti-gravity, there is no other explanation.

[@whitherwhence]

3:25 "

[@weirdswagmusicc]

8:09 Me when I drop my chicken

[@kinggonch]

maybe he uses the same ''juice'' as used by the crew of the Rocinante in, The Expanse. #Kyleontheexpanse

[@BigRell91]

Rico can do it just cause 😉

[@Local_commentor]

4 no reason

[@austinwalker381]

6:38 No "theory" about it Kyle. Mythbusters did that, it worked.

[@petrsevcik5044]

there are outside conditions (wind maybe), that could affect how each of them falls and result in a diference. "in theory" here means "under normal conditions".

[@austinwalker381]

@@petrsevcik5044 Oh. My mistake then, I didn't know that is what that referred to. Thank u for clarifying

[@time2rowco999]

They would only do that if you compensated or accounted for the flight time after being fired

[@Will-Woll]

On a interesting note, if the projectile fired was fast enough (like maybe a rail gun) you'd have to take into account the curvature of the earth.

[@dillonchaddick695]

Yeah, but even they found that the hook retraction lines would end up stopping part way.

[@optimus2200]

attack on titans gear is more realistic and safer ?

[@holyloli69420]

I'm watching this while playing Just Cause 4 😆

[@awdhootkanawade]

Me playing jc3

[@maxcochrane7034]

Me nothing 😢

[@AaronGiffordOfficial]

Is it good

[@santiagomarin1882]

Well, I am playing the first one because of my crap computer

[@fugeman2]

Breath of the wild link doesn’t even have a grappling hook kyle 😂

[@becausescience]

...........right -- kH

[@fugeman2]

Because Science oh kyle 😂

[@fugeman2]

Because Science one day, you will make a video so good, that no one can refute anything in it 😂. And if they try, well yes, they will be wrong. R-O-N-G RONG

[@pranav2310]

He kyle how does dragon ball's fusion work

[@Beegrene]

Magic

[@MrGhosta5]

Magic

[@kojre1756]

Magic

[@29droni15]

Pranav S Magic

[@user-ok4pk2mp3e]

Who else actually started using argan oil because of his recommendation?

[@becausescience]

Reduce frizz, add shine, looking fine. BAM. Sponsor me. -- kH

[@thedragonknight5194]

Thats why attack on titan's grappling hooks are the best

[@kylo-juju3796]

those actually are way more dangerous XD

[@thedragonknight5194]

G-force wise, yes.

[@kylo-juju3796]

@@thedragonknight5194 jajajajajajajajajajaja!!!!

[@nikezor1]

Or you snap in half and fold like a fold up chair.

[@kylo-juju3796]

@@nikezor1 auch... yeah that too...

[@1doom1000]

Come on, man. You're better than this, stealing a Game Theory episode? tisk tisk.

[@bruhmoment1196]

There is no game theory episode of Just Cause 4..

[@comradesam3382]

@@bruhmoment1196 he did one on Legend of Zelda

[@Electric0eye]

>Implying game theory has been relevant in years

[@coderdbd]

OMG... first Mortal Engines and now Just Cause?? This has become an advertisement channel. Same thing that happened to Minute Physics.

[@becausescience]

If you don't like the content, you don't have to watch. I stand behind it and had fun figuring these things out. Advertisements and branded episodes make up the majority of your favorite channels' resources. If they never advertised, you'd never see them. This is business, and the more you do, the bigger and better you can get. If you really hate branded stuff you're going to miss out on a HUGE project dropping early next year... -- kH

[@ryankunst668]

Wow, it's like they do videos on relevant pop culture or something...

[@Beegrene]

He does videos about the science behind pop culture. If the owners of said pop culture want to pay him, what's the problem?

[@coderdbd]

@@becausescience I know it's business, and I'm happy for you and for the growth of your channel, it seems imminent that when a channel grows to a certain level, all you see are branded episodes. The problem is that (probably) you won't see any more star wars or back to the future episodes, now we'll only see only analysis on the new movie/book/video game to try to get us interested in buying it. But again, I'm genuinely happy for your growth as a channel.

[@The_Sleepiest_Socialist]

Just by covering the Just Cause games you’re pretty much my favorite youtuber, though you know that Rico can take a train impact, a grenade to the face, over 10 bullets, a missile, a flak bolt and more, right?

[@vincentxu8217]

That's why video game worlds are great, creators can make their character survive(or die) to whatever they want. You can have charaters that can take a hundred bullet shots and still won't die, or a charater that dies by a single touch of a turtle.

[@cynicthehedgehog385]

Its like Yahtzee said once, (Paraphrased) “ whats the best way to survive a fall at terminal velocity? Fire a grappling hook at the ground and smack into the ground slightly faster”

[@obiwantennobi3888]

Of course Rico can survive it. Have u seen his insane healing factor

[@miiightymango]

The best part about being in an high school AP Physics class right now is that I can perfectly understand all of the concepts that Kyle is using in this video, and I could actually recreate all of this math myself if I wanted to (but who actually likes doing math that much)

[@AndrewDesRochers]

Hey Kyle, Love the show and LOVE this franchise. I followed along with your math to see what the recoil of the arm-mounted grappling hook would be. Using the same clip where Rico travels 122m, it looks like the grappling hook reaches the car in about 1s, meaning it would need to be going 3x Rico's speed, ~135m/s. Most grappling hooks I was able to find on Amazon look to be about 2.65 Lbs or 1.2 Kgs. Using the same equation you used, we'd be getting about 186 newtons of force or 40.9 pounds of force. Not enough to break your arm, but definitely enough to knock you off your feet if you weren't ready for it. Probably wouldn't be a great game mechanic to keep having to pick Rico up every time he fires the grapple.

[@That80sGuy1972]

In a science fiction game I ran, I had such grapplers. To use them, you needed a "force distribution screen" to not rip your arm off. That screen was common, it is why the game tended to use a borderline HP system for injury rather than location hits. If you don't have it, combat kills you quickly. If you have it, you will probably survive being near most portable weapon explosions or multiple weapon hits. Such grapplers in my game also worked with portable jump items to counter gravity. Most were jetboots, some were kinetic inductors (ungodly expensive).

[@doshjavis6194]

You don’t mention the fact that the force required to even fire the grappling hook would send his arm flailing off his body in the opposite direction. Man, science is awesome! Keep up the good work!

[@aaronbrown6733]

New idea- Could you survive the Dovahkiin’s shout power in Elder Scrolls v: Skyrim

[@JefferyMewtamer]

A few thoughts that come to mind: 1. Zipline gun: Shoots out modified harpoons in oppsite directions to form a zipline, and after crossing, quickly reels in both lines. What kind of recoil would be produced to ensure it shoots out with enough force to embed itself deep enough in a stonesurface to support a human's weight? 2. For the traditional pop culture grappling hook, do the forces become any more survivable if used only for vertical ascent or if a two-handed grip is used for the retraction phase? 3. For a more realistic grapple hook, if the hook is used to secure a rope to a pivot and you then use the rope to swing across a gap, what kind of forces, acceleration, and top speeds are achieved? Also, what kind of arc does such a swing take, and can you add sideways movement to a swing to reach a destination that doesn't have a straight sight line from your starting position? and even when you can swing straight across, does a height difference make a difference in the surviability of the swing? I would think the simplest would be where both platforms are at the same height and the pivot was exactly half way between the points, so you'd reach the opposite side just as you're completing an arc of the pendulum, and that you'd have a hard landing if the destination was lower and directly below the pivot, and you'd need a running start to get enough momentum to continue the swing to reach a higher platform, but I'm not sure my intuition is correct. 4. Speaking of sideways forces, are G-limits known for eyes sideways? For that matter, does it make a difference if you're travelling in a straight line as as opposed to in a circle?

[@ultraspeed_exe]

I do like that the game very much acknowledges that it's not very realistic, but still does crazy things because they're fun. After all, you can't have a parachute that you can activate, and then deactivate into a wingsuit before activating the parachute again. You also can't use a parachute to gain altitude, or as a travel ability to travel impossible distances, but you do anyway. Think about the strain that launching and deactivating a parachute would have on Rico. You even point out in the episode that putting on a parachute at terminal velocity (something that Rico does all the time) would have a force of approximately 4-5000 N. Rico is able to go from free-fall to parachute, to wingsuit, to grappling straight to the ground, and take no damage. Think about the problems of grappling into the ground. You have the force of the grappling hook, and the force of gravity all causing large forces to Rico when he stops on the ground.

[@brobafett21]

Thank you for making this video. I recently played through Just Cause 2 & 3 in their entirety and I’ve been wondering exactly this. What would the effect of the Just Cause grappling hook be in real life.

[@ryanm7832]

If you ever watch a video of a pilot training inside a centrifuge (there's several on KZbin, but the specific one I'm thinking of is a very pretty female officer training to be a F-18 pilot), you can see the methods used to endure 3+ G's: pressurized suits, a core-clenching and grunting/quick breathing technique to keep from blacking, or "greying", out, and the way in which they introduce and acclimate trainees to high G forces. In the F-18 trainee video, the trainee is in a mock cockpit on the centrifuge, which includes basic controls and joystick/yoke, as well as various devices to measure the effects on the body; green lights extending to the edges of the field of vision (so the pilot can report loss of consciousness, tunnel vision, etc, by relaying the extent of light they can see while under strain), biometrics (fitbit-like data; heart rate, blood pressure, breathing pattern, oxygen levels, and the like), etc.

[@detritus10001]

"Ow, my tendies" is my new favorite phrase! Lol! Oh, Kyle, you silly big Ole girl, you!

[@declanpalm6607]

The bullet experiment you were talking about, dropping and firing a bullet at the same time, was done by the Mythbusters. They found that the bullets were just about milliseconds apart from reaching the ground at the same time. So yeah, gravity's acceleration does play a part.

[@snake420100]

i don't know how true that is the bullet theory. on this i got some exp i run a hunting store. now ive seen where someone shot an it took a few seconds to reach the target an they were sitting down so it weren't very far from the ground. but after so much distance you do have to aim above the target but that's only at a considerable distance like 200 yards. huh i would really like to test the theory

[@johnbennett1465]

Kyle, you compute the effects of accelerating, but you don't worry about the deceleration at the other end. Since the wire can not slow you down, you are impacting the destination at your max volocity (assuming horizontal movement). This could have several failure modes depending on what is there. These include failing to stop and going splat against a wall. I am sure there are many other ways to fail as well.

[@tj8500]

In Just Cause 3, Dimah actually says when she gives you the new grappling hook: Less chance of violent limb detachment.

[@deadturret4049]

Doesnt 3 also show rico's grapple cable being hooked into his harness, distributing more of the force on his whole body. Dimah wasnt joking.

[@tj8500]

@@deadturret4049 lol

[@RonohTheFirst]

That's just the pull affect. Chances are the launch of the hook itself would easily, if attached to the arm, shatter your arm and collar bone as well as dislocate your shoulder. Assuming the hook at the end is made out steel or something harder. How else would it be able to hook into solid surfaces? It's not wrapping it's self around things. It being embedded into what ever surface it hits. It has to be a material able to be used over and over with out dulling or denting. Witch supports it being made out of a heavy duty metal.

[@MrGhosta5]

It also needs to be a material that can latch onto humans and animals without injuring them.

[@kilrath81]

The #1 thing i think that wasnt discussed is the sudden stop at the end. The free fall doesnt usually kill you, its the sudden stop. So if you were going even 40mph on this hook, when you caught the side of the building it would be like being hit by a train at 40mph. So in the end you used some special tech to protect your body as described below but you still ended up being a bug on a windscreen. Your arm could withstand a lot more if you wore some sort of dampening harness. Obviously not to the video game extent but to a much greater extent. You would mount the grapple arm on a hydraulic damper the length of your forearm so that it takes up a chunk of the initial shock. That is then attached to a strong but stretchable harness that goes up your arm to your core. at full extent it is the same length as your arm so that it cant be dislocated. Then the whiplash factor comes into play. The harness would have to go up your neck with some sort of mechanism so that when the harness is pulled tight on your arm it pulls plates together behind your head and neck to basically lock it in the upright position but only if the hook is deployed so that your neck doesnt lock on punches or climbs. You would likely want the same kind of functionality behind your legs so that they dont just flail around behind you.

[@timmason3988]

"Gravity applies to you here on earth..." "Here" on Earth, Kyle? I didn't know the void was located on Earth.

[@juschu85]

6:30 That would only be true on a flat Earth, right? On the spherical Earth (the actual Earth specifically) the bullet that was shot would enter a really low and really short orbit around Earth. While moving the Earth would curve down beneath the bullet and it would have to fall deeper until it hits the ground. Of course, I'm assuming a perfectly flat(/spherical) ground here.

[@BreadApologist]

Just gotta love how in free fall with Rico, you can dive toward the ground as fast as possible ......then use grapple on the ground when its in range, thus accelerating you even more toward the Earth......and then land with no injury what so ever.

[@maksimslhernault4042]

my favorite part of just cause series is that rico can break his fall by grappling to the ground when free falling

[@UncleMilosSideshow]

My favorite example is Batman’s grappler, in physics clas we calculated that using his grapple gun would actually remove your fingers while trowing you across the room only a few feet because the forces remove your fingers so fast that the duration in which you are exposed to the forces is so short.

[@lady_draguliana784]

I've always wanted media makers that use Grapnels and the like to include harnesses and exoskeletal frames: or super-strength/durability. especially with the "super robot arm" trope, where an arm that strong would rip your own body in half: unless it transferred it's forces through an exoskeletal frame and to the ground, or diffusing the forces evenly throughout the body with a harness for negative forces.

[@William1w1]

Hey, Kyle. I have a small correction to make. You said that free fall on Jupiter would be dangerous, but it actually wouldn't. Accelerations are dangerous if they are caused by contact forces because part of your body gets pushed or pulled before other parts, causing crushing and squeezing and what have you. Gravity, on the other hand, accelerates all parts of your body equally, so your blood would be accelerated with your skin and your bones and everything else. Thus everything stays in the right relative position. (Indeed, such thought experiments show up in General Relativity.) Standing on a solid surface on Jupiter, on the other hand, would be bad because of the normal force, which is a contact force. On a separate note, free falling toward a black hole would kill you, but that's due to extreme tidal forces, which require very intense gravitational fields, much stronger than what Jupiter could provide.

[@ninponighthawk]

Having wrote this and re-listened to the video I realized you said "in theory" but a tidbit of information. In extreme long distance shooting, you have to calculate for the curvature of the Earth, meaning, that unless you are on a perfectly flat plain and depending on the elevation from which you dropped/shot the bullet, and the caliber, etc etc. the dropped bullet may hit the ground first.

[@lotsoflambdas]

in game it has that comment "issac newton's law of no gravity:the best way of breaking a fall is of course grappling to the ground" so it acknowledges that the grappling hook is a gravity gun lmao

[@rowboatcop4451]

I think another issue with video game grappling hooks is that you always go to where you shoot the hook and then immediately stop completely. I'm pretty sure that without some kind of counter thrust, your momentum would send you flying past whatever it is you connected you hook to. If not then you're also going to have to deal with insane deceleration forces, probably the equivalent of getting in a car crash every time you arrive at your destination

[@Pixeleyes00]

Not to mention the force from launching the hook out being almost instantaneous over hundreds of feet is probably enough recoil (or ricoil if you will) to blast his arm off his body backwards.

[@abisz007007]

07:52 it genuinely made me laugh, how exited kyle is about 700...thaaaaaousand

[@salansar6661]

In Tim Burton's Batman this was actually Covered when you see Batman attach his grappling hook to his belt. The only purpose of the hand held gun itself was so that you could aim the grappling hook and attach it to an object.

[@bobmathews5314]

Hey Kyle, love the channel. A couple of points/questions: Attaching the cable to your center of mass does make the most sense, but wouldn't it still cause some trama to the lumbar region of the spine and hips? What would be the velocity tolerance for that? Now I'm just seeing someone pelvic thrusting into oblivion... Wouldn't the slowing down also pose a massive problem like in your superhero landing video? I know thats why we use dynamic rope in top roping, but we're still not landing right on our feet. What if they used a dynamic cable instead of a rigid/static one? Hope to hear from you, thanks!!

[@omercohen5408]

I love how Kyle keeps everything interesting even with sponsoring around

[@marshallemmett3313]

Question: which would fail first? The joint that is a shoulder or the joint that is an elbow? I ask because I 1) haven't played the game and 2) you illustrated the device ending below the elbow. Love the videos! Keep up the amazing stuff you do both in and out of the void!

[@kodyjayvin]

You know, there are pros and cons for the realistic grappling hook in a video game as well! You wouldn't have the same fine control, but you could dual wield pistols as the acceleration wouldn't make aiming too difficult once you got used to it. That in addition to the fact you'd be difficult to hit, but would probably need rollerblades so you don't get your feet caught in any potholes and get them ripped off or your ankles dislocated. Yeah, it could make a cool video game concept

[@BlazeStorm]

Loved that in The Void joke with the pen drop

[@VFenris6184]

So, I watched the Game Knights episode that you were in and it got my brain cranking for some reason. So I've been thinking about how energy works on Kaladesh and how much energy the Izzet guild produces. Yes, I know it's technically magic. Yet, lets not forget Kaladesh and the Izzet Guild are composed technically of scientists. Now lets focus on Kaladesh. I was wondering if you remove aether from the components of their Vehicles, Thopters, and other Artifacts/Artifact Creatures. How much energy would be needed to mimic these Artifacts?

[@LyleBoy2]

This made me think of Widowmaker’s grappling hook in Overwatch, which led to thinking about how “sciencey” other abilities are. For instance, how loud would Lucio’s sound wave have to be to bop someone off the edge?

[@DWolfsGaming119]

Hahaha I say my Tendies too, say it every time I get hurt. I thought I was the only one. I love this show even more now. Thanks Kyle!

[@SuperSpeed21]

Thinking about it. That acceleration sounds a bit painful because the amount of force is being use to pull the arm and body. Then there's the issue with the landing. When Rico uses his grappling hook, he is pulled by the force of the grappling hook. But he also comes to a stop by force when he wants to use his grappling hook to land on the ground, plane, or car. So not only would his arm get pulled out his socket, but wouldn't his legs break as well due to the amount of force.

[@noahmccann4438]

What about the sheer weight of rope needed to travel those kinds of distances? Lugging that around would be really inconvenient, especially if all of it was kept on one arm because it would leave you quite unbalanced. Though having some kind of backpack could mitigate this, and could be combined with the idea of a harness around your chest. Doing some very quick calculations based on a chart I found for nylon rope, a 24mm (1 inch thick) rope would weigh 0.377kg per meter, resulting in a weight of 377kg for the 1km travel distance mentioned in the video. A rope half that thickness would weigh 0.094kg per meter, but would still exceed Rico’s weight for that kind of distance. It’s possible the lore of the game series covers this by making the rope out of some incredibly strong and light material, but even then I think you’d find the sheer volume of the rope to result in some awkwardness even if it’s weight was minimal.

[@gerg905]

Here's a question then, what about what happens BEFORE you even start moving? If you were to accelerate a .75 inch steel cable 122m long fast enough to attach the hook onto an object the grapple would have to send 181 kg of cable 122 meters in less than a second (I'm using .5 seconds as a guide), using the example you gave. The force on the main character would equal 44164 N, or about 54 Gs. Which is well beyond the injury range if you're only going horizontal, but if he were to grapple with this speed straight up then he'd die almost instantly. This is a more conservative estimate as I've never played the game myself so I'm really only adding to what you've said here. However, if we were to take the grapple distance shown at 7:13 then the force applied to the main character would far exceed anything the human could withstand in any capacity.

[@dragan25a]

One thing I really didn't see mention in this video is the deceleration forces since in most pop culture uses of grappling hooks that come to mind has them pretty much "landing" at full speed. So one would need some sort of heavily engineered protection or reusable airbags to cushion landings to keep them from having dust for bones.

[@theparkouristad]

I might not be right here, but when I was playing Jc3, I had liberated an outpost and when it went to slow-mo. I saw that Rico had his grappling hook line connected to his parachute. This probably would spread out the G's created by the pull. But it still wouldn't be enough to save Rico from a painful death. Well, That's video game logic for you.

[@n.w.2047]

What if you had some kind of Wingsuit which could provide enough lift to prevent you from hitting the ground helps to distribute the force across your body and also could be used to slow you down like a parachute before hitting your destination? Also could maybe batmans cape provide such features?

[@BareFool]

That makes the Attack on Titan 3DMGs a bit more feasible since it's attached via harnesses. That design also leaves both your arms free so you can use them for other functions, like wield weapons. Though I'd maintain that it still isn't safe with the speeds they are moving (because of all the other problems described).

[@DeadMarine1980]

Another character that uses this form of transportation is Pratal Mox from XCOM 2 War of the Chosen. The cord feeds from a back pack and follows up along his arm and shoots out of the wrist launcher. This might be a good example you mentioned in the end, don't have the stress on the arm but the core. And of course he doesn't go up more than three/four stories and or maybe one hundred feet max in distance. Also he actually uses his grappling hook to pull his enemies to him to finish them off. Similar to Scorpion in Mortal Kombat. What would be the stress to a victim's body if they were shot by a grappling hook?

[@SpearM3064]

I love how you can exploit the physics in the games. I haven't played 3 or 4 yet, but in *Just Cause 2,* you can be falling towards the ground from a lethal height. "Oh, no! If I hit the ground, I'm going to die! What do I do?" says our hero Rico. "I know! I'll use my grapple! I'll grapple the ground, hit the ground *even faster,* and suffer *no damage!"* Only in video games, boys and girls. xD

[@colinmatter4697]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but Attack on Titan's 3D maneuver gear is like a grappling hook that attaches to your center of mass. It looks amazing, dynamic, and exciting, and it's super cool. Granted it's in an anime, so the rule of cool is King... But I wanted to throw out a pop culture reference for grappling hooks that are more plausible than The Dark Knight's.

[@Electroblud]

"Like you were in free fall on Jupiter" Note that free fall is basically the definition of zero-G, so you would not feel any acceleration. But since you are on Jupiter, you are not in fact in free fall but falling through an atmosphere. The gases flowing past you will impart an acceleration upwards, counteracting the acceleration due to gravity. Thus the inside of your body will feel acceleration eyeballs downward (NOT upward!).

[@red62]

An idea just struck: what if you attached the grapple gun to a harness that tethers from your hand to your chest? That way you can still have that heroic pose but instead of all the force going through your arm ripping your squishy limb off it would transfer all that force directly to your torso.

[@goliath012001]

Great topic. You mentioned "Red outs" and "Black outs" (G-LOC) from the negative "G's" but didn't mention that positive "G's" causes loss of color or "Grey Outs" that also can lead to (G-LOC)

[@globyrain3339]

Hey Kyle I've got a question(or correction). At about 3:00 why did you assume that Rico's final velocity after acceleration is the same as the average velocity from distance per time. Shouldn't the final velocity be about 1.5 - 2 times the average velocity that you found? According to this, all of the forces calculate should be significantly increased.

[@lewismassie]

These last two sponsored videos have been great. It's nice to see the channel get recognition like this