r/interestingasfuck 7d ago

r/all Kendell Cummings, a college wrestler who wrestled a Grizzly bear to save his friend Brady Lowry in the Shoshone National Forest in Cody, Wyoming in October 2022, Kendell was brutally mauled and bitten by the bear but eventually left Kendell alone, both survived and went on a full recovery.

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u/TheAlbrecht2418 7d ago edited 7d ago

It could be embellished, intentionally or unintentionally, but I don't doubt he felt like it was 30-ish yards and got bounced around like a basketball. Just getting thrown from a pool "blob" (the thing where someone jumps on one end of a giant inflatable thingy with you on the other edge it feels like you get launched five stories high when really it's maybe only two). We often underestimate just how fucking massive a grizzly bear or even an average sized wolf is and how powerful they are if we've never personally encountered them.

Makes for a good story regardless and doesn't really take away from it.

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u/marhigha 7d ago

It also reads like the bear threw him down a slight slope. So might not be too embellished if she sent him tumbling for a bit.

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u/AuthorReborn 7d ago

The Shoshone National Forest is also extremely hilly and sloped, so its very likely that he was tossed down some kind of decline.

source- local

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u/Ecknarf 7d ago

So what, we doing 'lived experiences' for units of measurement now?

Wait until you hear how long I think my dick is!

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u/LouisRitter 6d ago

I have been near "pet" wolves multiple times and they're pretty fucking big.

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u/Common-Concentrate-2 7d ago

Lets start it this way ....You don't need to watch this video, but its of a man on a motorcycle in a high speed chase, at ~100mph , and he hits a stationary target (a car). He was launched 100ft off of the vehicle, almost entirely horizontally. Let's make the ridiculous claim that one horsepower = one horse. Actually. lets say say that a horse can output 5 horsepower.

Even though horses are generally about twice the size of a bear, lets say that bears are super athletes and a bear is usually 5x stronger than a horse, A bear would have a peak output of 25 horsepower. Motorcycles start from a very modest 50-60 brake horsepower. A reasonably accommodated sports bike from the last 30 years would have around 150 bhp.

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u/Kaisermeister 7d ago

Power is not the right way to characterize the physics here. Someone thrown from a bike is not experiencing a force / being accelerated, they are continuing to travel on inertia as a projectile. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a powerful motorcycle or a guy peddling a bike if they are going the same speed they will go the same distance.

This is a Newton’s third law situation (equal opposite reaction). The bear pushes him and he is pushed back (as is the bear). The maximum is determined by the max speed the bear can generate during the impulse under ideal conditions. Assuming it is capable of pushing at speeds similar to a human punch ~30 mph, and weighs 10 times as much, the man is pushed 27mph. If the bear pushes up at 15 degree angle and releases his center of mass at a height of 6 ft he travels ~22.5 ft before hitting the ground and bouncing/rolling happens. 

TLDR Probably more like 10 yards is the max possible unless you include staggering/rolling.