3 ms·
What is the driving equivalent to one skydive? I think that question genuinely illustrates their point that some risk is best considered as a rate whereas some
by burnished 4y ago
What is the driving equivalent to one skydive?
I think that question genuinely illustrates their point that some risk is best considered as a rate whereas some is as a discrete event but I am very interested if you can elaborate a perspective that reconciles that
- inkcapmushroom 4y agoThe link gives both of those, actually. Skydiving is 8 micromorts per jump, car travel is one micromort per ~250 miles. So the equivalent chance of death for one skydive is driving 2000 miles.
- ineedasername 4y agoBut how to combine them, i.e., micromorts per skydiving jump via a car that travels 250 miles in the air before driving it out of the back of a cargo plane? I think we should just add them together and call it 9 micromorts, assuming the car has an appropriately sized parachute.
- burnished 4y agoThat seems to further solidify the original observation. I do appreciate you finding their break even point though!
- setr 3y agoI think the answer is that it’s always a rate; it’s just that the skydiving is such a rare event we can implicitly drop the “per chute” because we’re assuming it’s always going to be “1 chute”. If you took the skydiver instructor, doing hundreds of rounds, then suddenly skydiving should no longer be considered a “discrete event” — your determination of how to treat it isn’t based on the event-type itself, but the object undergoing the event.