You will not survive

Movies like Iron man suggest that a suit of armour is all you need to survive big impacts. However, physics works differently. A quick look at cars shows us why.

Cars used to be build as strong as possible. The stronger the car, the better! Unfortunately this is not the case. With big crashes the car had little damage. However, the person inside the car was dead. This is because of inertia. The body of the person inside the car continues to travel, while the car goes to a standstill. The body hits the car and deforms anyway, while the car stays rigid. It is like hitting a concrete wall, but in this case it's the car!

Having an armour will just shift the "concrete wall" to be right against your skin as you hit the water. Especially as hitting water at high speeds can be harder than hitting concrete, as water deforms slower at high impacts than concrete.

What you want is slowing down before hitting something. That is why current cars deform by impact so easily. The deformation slows the vehicle and the person down at a more acceptable pace in a short time. It still is a big ordeal, looking at anyone who has been in a big car crash. But at least it's survivable. You still have some strength here and there, so the car doesn't deform into the person.

So you want an armour to be able to slow down the impact. If it is a "fixed" armour in strength, you want it to be big (unsuitably big for any normal armour purposes) and able to deform upon hitting to slow down the person as equally as possible in the short time of the impact.

You will not survive

Movies like Iron man suggest that a suit of armour is all you need to survive big impacts. However, physics works differently. A quick look at cars shows us why.

Cars used to be build as strong as possible. The stronger the car, the better! Unfortunately this is not the case. With big crashes the car had little damage. However, the person inside the car was dead. This is because of inertia. The body of the person inside the car continues to travel, while the car goes to a standstill. The body hits the car and deforms anyway, while the car stays rigid. It is like hitting a concrete wall, but in this case it's the car!

Having an armour will just shift the "concrete wall" to be right against your skin as you hit the water. Especially as hitting water at high speeds can be harder than hitting concrete, as water deforms slower at high impacts than concrete.

What you want is a more gradual slowing down as you hit something. That is why current cars deform by impact so easily. The deformation slows the vehicle and the person down at a more acceptable pace in a short time. It still is a big ordeal, looking at anyone who has been in a big car crash. But at least it's survivable. You still have some strength here and there, so the car doesn't deform into the person.

So you want an armour to be able to slow down the impact. If it is a "fixed" armour in strength, you want it to be big (unsuitably big for any normal armour purposes) and able to deform upon hitting to slow down the person as equally as possible in the short time of the impact.

You will not survive

Movies like Iron man suggest that a suit of armour is all you need to survive big impacts. However, physics works differently. A quick look at cars shows us why.

Cars used to be build as strong as possible. The stronger the car, the better! Unfortunately this is not the case. With big crashes the car had little damage. However, the person inside the car was dead. This is because of inertia. The body of the person inside the car continues to travel, while the car goes to a standstill. The body hits the car and deforms anyway, while the car stays rigid. It is like hitting a concrete wall, but in this case it's the car!

Having an armour will just shift the "concrete wall" to be right against your skin as you hit the water. Especially as hitting water at high speeds can be harder than hitting concrete, as water deforms slower at high impacts than concrete.

What you want is slowing down before hitting something. That is why current cars deform by impact so easily. The deformation slows the vehicle and the person down at a more acceptable pace in a short time. It still is a big ordeal, looking at anyone who has been in a big car crash. But at least it's survivable. You still have some strength here and there, so the car doesn't deform into the person.

So you want an armour to be able to slow down the impact. If it is a "fixed" armour in strength, you want it to be big and able to deform upon hitting to slow down the person as equally as possible in the short time of the impact.

You will not survive

Movies like Iron man suggest that a suit of armour is all you need to survive big impacts. However, physics works differently. A quick look at cars shows us why.

Cars used to be build as strong as possible. The stronger the car, the better! Unfortunately this is not the case. With big crashes the car had little damage. However, the person inside the car was dead. This is because of inertia. The body of the person inside the car continues to travel, while the car goes to a standstill. The body hits the car and deforms anyway, while the car stays rigid. It is like hitting a concrete wall, but in this case it's the car!

Having an armour will just shift the "concrete wall" to be right against your skin as you hit the water. Especially as hitting water at high speeds can be harder than hitting concrete, as water deforms slower at high impacts than concrete.

What you want is slowing down before hitting something. That is why current cars deform by impact so easily. The deformation slows the vehicle and the person down at a more acceptable pace in a short time. It still is a big ordeal, looking at anyone who has been in a big car crash. But at least it's survivable. You still have some strength here and there, so the car doesn't deform into the person.

So you want an armour to be able to slow down the impact. If it is a "fixed" armour in strength, you want it to be big (unsuitably big for any normal armour purposes) and able to deform upon hitting to slow down the person as equally as possible in the short time of the impact.