Artificial Means of Jumping Higher

[Haftred]

I am looking to see if there is a discrete way to increase the height one can jump, and the only way I could see it feasibly being done is with a spring. However, the spring could only realistically be supressed a few centimeters, and the spring constant needed would need to be relatively large, say 100,000 N / m. Even if there were a spring with this large spring constant, it would be almost impossible to supress it the needed few centimeters. Therefore, it seems that springs would not do anything. Any ideas about artificial means of jumping higher?

 

[moose]

Yes, except after a certain point, the acceleration you experience would kill you. You could use some sort of rockets, robotic leg type devices, etc.

 

[rachmaninoff]

This mechanism is well known.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_stick

 

[KingNothing]

It's kind of a quirky question. If you jump onto a spring and simultaneously jump again, you are using the spring's stored energy from your fall plus the energy you are exerting to jump again.

So really what you are asking is, "how can I add kinetic energy", and there's a LOT of ways to do that!

 

[rcgldr]

What about a trampoline? If you're referring to the rules of a high jump in track events, note that the rules require that only one leg is planted. If a gynmastics type flip flop move were allowed, using a two foot take off, the height would be much larger. If the surface were allowed to be springy, as in power tumbling (not an olympic event), the heights are quite high.