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

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

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.

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

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.

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...

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

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

“Because Duh, and also Science” 😂

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 ;)

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

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?

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

Falling at terminal velocity? Just grapple the ground!

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

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!

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

Anybody rememeber the attack on titan episode? Yeah exactly

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).

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)

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?

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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”

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.

My tendies

If no one else has, I would like to mention the fantastic Mythbusters episode, 'Bullet Fired VS. Bullet Dropped'. I only mention this because you mentioned it yourself, Kyle, and Adam and Jamie proved that the bullets do in fact hit the ground at the same time, given the right circumstances. Aside from that, great episode Kyle, and love your vids, very educational, you are one of the best science communicators; up there with the Mythbusters themselves.

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

Rico can do it just cause 😉

3:25 "

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.

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.

Darn… my prep notes for things he might miss or not discuss… he hit them all. A full body harness hidden under their clothes to evenly distribute the force, and connected along the arm instead of chest would at least prevent you from dislocating your shoulder/ripping off your arm when using an arm mounted grapple hook. And still look heroically dynamic. G-Forces would still be a problem. Unless you have access to Iron Man’s magic tech that let’s him suddenly stop when evading jet fighters. (See previous episode of Because Science)

attack on titans gear is more realistic and safer ?

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.

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

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

This is assuming that the components of the grappling hook could withstand these forces, specifically the cable. Let's be super generous and give Rico's grappling hook the tensile strength of steel cable; 14,400lbs, which would take about 64054.391 Newtons to break. So the cable would rip apart before your arm. Because Science. P.S. Kyle you are a beautiful boy.

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.

“I like my tendies” - Kyle Hill, 2018

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

I'm watching this while playing Just Cause 4 😆

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.

Loved that in The Void joke with the pen drop

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

He kyle how does dragon ball's fusion work

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.

I was waiting for this since just cause 2.. awesome

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

Kyle Mattpat already did this. And no no one can survive a grappling hook. And Kyle please explain Gundam's Beam Weapons.

this was a grat ep, was laughing most of the ay through. Nice work.

If you ever watch a video of a pilot training inside a centrifuge (there's several on KZfaq, 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.

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

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

I love how Kyle keeps everything interesting even with sponsoring around

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.

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!

I'm so glad this was an as on a video I watched, now I've found such a great channel!!

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?

I like how 2 of things in this episode were covered by Mythbusters: Bullet dropped vs bullet shot and grappling hooks. Jamie's arm-mounted grappler worked quite well if I remember correctly.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Kyle must be a strong lad if he can withstand that much grappling in one video

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.

You are so fun! I'm so happy when I see this show

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.

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

Love your vids man keep it up

Rico's grappling hook seams to have the miraculous ability to cancel gravity and somehow allows Rico to survive hitting the ground if you use it at terminal velocity straight into the ground therefore accelerating Rico into the ground even faster.

Dude, that entrance. Was so good. Your videos are hilarious.

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.

There goes that beat again 🔥 *starts Milly Rocking*

I can't get my head round why science classes exist. One of your videos explains more then three lessons of class. This is fun too

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

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

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.

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!

"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!).

Free falling on Jupiter is a sick band name. Thanks Kyle.

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

"violent limb detachment" sounds like a sick metal band