The vertical transmission of impulsive energy through the seated human

In the course of his normal activities man has to endure many physical and mental stresses. Evolution has endowed him with the ability to withstand such stresses provided that they do not exceed certain not very well-defined limits. However in his endeavours to investigate and experiment with his environment man often needs to exceed those limits and indeed may do so at times with potentially dangerous consequences. At other times he may find himself out of control of an otherwise safe situation, with similarly dangerous consequences. The present study was undertaken in order to investigate some of these physical limits. In particular the limits under investigation in this thesis are those of the man's tolerance to short duration high energy forces. [Continues.]