Escape Safely to The Ground!

You find yourself trapped at top an 800 foot tall building. The surrounding land is completely flat, plus there are no other structures nearby. You need to get to the bottom, uninjured, and can only safely fall about 5feet.

You look down the four walls; they are all completely smooth and featureless, except that one of the walls has a small ledge 400feet above the ground. Furthermore, there are two hooks, one on this ledge, and one directly above it on the edge of the roof. The only tools you have are 600feet of rope, and a knife.

 How do you get to the bottom? 

This should be your strategy! 

Strategy To Land Safely On The Ground

Why strategy needed to be planned?

1.Tie one end of the rope to the to hook and climb down to the ledge.

2. Cut (without dropping) the rope that hangs below the ledge, then climb back to the roof carrying the extra rope that you cut. You now have two lengths of rope: one that is 400 feet long and one that is 200 feet long.

3.At the top, untie the rope from the hook.

 Now setup the ropes like : Tie a small loop at one end of the 200-foot long rope. String the 400-foot long rope through the loop so that half of its length is on either side of the loop. Make sure that the loop is snug enough that the 400-foot long rope won't fall out by itself, but loose enough that you can pull the rope out later.

4. Now, tie the end of the 200-foot rope without the loop to the first hook. The 200-foot long rope lets you climb halfway to the ledge. 

5.For the remaining 200 feet, you carefully climb down the 400-foot rope, which hangs down 200 feet from where it is held by the loop. 

6.Once you get to the ledge, pull the 400-foot rope out of the loop.

7. Finally, tie it to the second hook, and climb the rest of the way to the ground.