Bungee jumping is an extreme sport where individuals jump from heights while attached to an elastic cord, creating a thrilling free-fall experience. The activity has historical roots in various cultures and has evolved with advancements in technique and equipment, including several popular variations. While bungee jumping offers excitement, it also poses risks of injury, often linked to equipment failure or the dynamics of the jump itself.

1. BUNGEE JUMPING
Submitted to: Mrs Suman Kohli

2. INTRODUCTION
• Bungee jumping is an activity that involves jumping
from a tall structure while connected to a large elastic
cord. The tall structure is usually a fixed object, such as
a building, bridge or crane; but it is also possible to
jump from a movable object, such as a hot-air-
balloon or helicopter, that has the ability
to hover above the ground. The thrill comes from
the free-falling and the rebound. When the person
jumps, the cord stretches and the jumper flies upwards
again as the cord recoils, and continues to oscillate up
and down until all the energy is dissipated.

3. HISTORY
• The word "bungee" originates from West Country
dialect of English language, meaning "Anything thick and squat",
as defined by James Jennings in his book "Observations of Some
of the Dialects in The West of England" published 1825. Around
1930, the name became used for a rubber eraser. The word bungy,
as used by A J Hackett, is "Kiwi slang for an Elastic Strap". Cloth-
covered rubber cords with hooks on the ends have been available
for decades under the generic name bungy cords.
• In the 1950s, David Attenborough and a BBC film crew brought
back footage of the "land divers" of Pentecost Island in Vanuatu,
young men who jumped from tall wooden platforms with vines
tied to their ankles as a test of their courage and passage into
manhood. A similar practice, only with a much slower pace for
falling, has been practised as the Danza de los Voladores de
Papantla or the 'Papantla flyers' of central Mexico, a tradition
dating back to the days of the Aztecs.

4. EQUIPMENT
• The elastic rope first used in bungee jumping, and still
used by many commercial operators, is factory-
produced braided shock cord. This consists of
many latex strands enclosed in a tough outer cover.
The outer cover may be applied when the latex is pre-
stressed, so that the cord's resistance to extension is
already significant at the cord's natural length. This
gives a harder, sharper bounce. The braided cover also
provides significant durability benefits. Other
operators, including A. J. Hackett and most southern-
hemisphere operators, use unbraided cords with
exposed latex strands. These give a softer, longer
bounce and can be home-produced.

5. IN POPULAR CULTURES
• Several major movies have featured naked bungee jumps, most
famously the opening sequence of the 1995 where Jordan Wellman
performed the highest nude bungee jump ever recorded James
Bond film GoldenEye in which Bond makes a jump over the edge of a
dam in Russia (in reality the dam is in Switzerland: Verzasca Dam, and
the jump was genuine, not an animated special effect). The jump in the
dam later makes an appearance as a Roadblock task in the 14th
season of the reality competition series The Amazing Race.
• It appears in the title of the South Korean film Bungee Jumping of Their
Own , although it does not play a large part in the film.
• A fictional proto-bungee jump is a plot point in the Michael
Chabon novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.
• In the film Selena, in which Jennifer Lopez plays Selena Quintanilla-
Perez, she is shown bungee jumping at a carnival. This actual event
took place shortly before Selena's death in 1995.

6. VARIATIONS
• Catapult
• In "Catapult" (Reverse Bungee or Bungee Rocket) the 'jumper' starts on the
ground. The jumper is secured and the cord stretched, then released and
shooting the jumper up into the air. This is often achieved using either a
crane or a hoist attached to a (semi-)perma structure. This simplifies the
action of stretching the cord and later lowering the participant to the
ground.
• Twin Tower
• "Twin Tower" is similar with two oblique cords. There are two towers, each
with a cord leading the jumper. When the cords are stretched the jumper
is released and shoots straight up.
• Trampoline
• "Bungy Trampoline" uses, as its name suggests, elements from bungy and
trampolining. The participant begins on a trampoline and is fitted into a
body harness, which is attached via bungy cords to two high poles on
either side of the trampoline. As they begin to jump, the bungy cords are
tightened, allowing a higher jump than could normally be made from a
trampoline alone.

7. • Running
• "Bungee Running" involves no jumping as such. It merely consists
of, as the name suggests, running along a track (often inflatable)
with a bungee cord attached. One often has a velcro-backed
marker that marks how far the runner got before the bungee cord
pulled back. This activity can often be found at fairs and carnivals
and is often most popular with children.
• Ramp
• Bungee jumping off a ramp. Two rubber cords - the "bungees" - are
tied around the participant's waist to a harness. Those bungee
cords are linked to steel cables along which they can slide due to
stainless pulleys. The participants bicycle, sled or ski before
jumping.
• Suspended Catch Air Device
• SCAD diving is similar to bungee jumping in that participant is
dropped from a height, but in this variation there is not a cord,
instead the participant falls into a net.

8. SAFETY
• Bungee jumping injuries may be divided into those that occur
secondary to equipment mishap or tragic accident, and those that
occur regardless of safety measures. In the first instance, injury can
happen if the safety harness fails, the cord elasticity is
miscalculated, or the cord is not properly connected to the jump
platform. In 1986Michael Lush died of multiple injuries after bungee
jumping for a stunt on a BBC television programme and in 1997, Laura
Patterson, one of a 16-member professional bungee jumping
team, died of massive cranial trauma when she jumped from the top
level of the Louisiana Superdome and collided head-first into the
concrete-based playing field. She was practicing for an exhibition
intended to be performed during the halftime show of Super Bowl
XXXI. In 2002 Chris Thomas died after his harness tore off during a
charity jump in Swansea, Wales: it was later claimed that the harness
was not safe for his weight. On New Year's Eve 2011, Erin
Langworthy, an Australian woman was plunged into the Zambezi
River at Victoria Falls, where she nearly drowned with her feet still tied
together after her bungee rope snapped during a jump.

9. POSSIBLE INJURIES
• Injuries that occur despite safety measures generally relate to the abrupt
rise in upper body intravascular pressure during bungee cord recoil.
Eyesight damage is the most frequently reported complication. Impaired
eyesight secondary to retinal haemorrhage may be transient or take
several weeks to resolve. In one case, a 26 year old woman's eyesight was
still impaired after 7 months. Whiplash injuries may occur as the jumper is
jolted on the bungee cord and in at least one case, this has led to
quadriplegia secondary to a broken neck. Very serious injury can also
occur if the jumper's neck or body gets entangled in the cord. More
recently, carotid artery dissection leading to a type of stroke after bungee
jumping has also been described. All of these injuries have occurred in fit
and healthy people in their twenties and thirties. Bungee jumping has also
been shown to increase stress and decrease immune function.

10. THE HIGHEST JUMP
• In August 2005, AJ Hackett added a
SkyJump to the Macau Tower, making it
the world's highest jump at 233 metres
(764 ft). The SkyJump did not qualify as
the world's highest bungee as it is not
strictly speaking a bungee jump, but
instead what is referred to as a
'Decelerator-Descent' jump, using a steel
cable and decelerator system, rather than
an elastic rope. On 17 December 2006,
The Macau Tower started operating a
proper bungee jump, which became the
"Highest Commercial Bungee Jump In
The World" according to the Guinness
Book of Records. The Macau Tower
Bungy has a "Guide cable" system that
limits swing (the jump is very close to the
structure of the tower itself) but does not
have any effect on the speed of descent,
so this still qualifies the jump for the
World Record.

11. Made by : Samyak Jain-04
Class: VIIID