When Will I Start to Fall After a Rope Is Cut?

[ayzd]

... and then someone cuts it, at which point will I become unbalanced i.e. start to fall?

is there a delay from when the rope is cut to when I start to fall?

 

[BvU]

Hello ayzd,

Good question.
The speed with which a change in tension propagates through the rope is the speed of sound in the rope, so: yes, there is a delay.

For comparison:
There are some nice videos where someone let's go of a slinky and you see the bottom end of the slinky stays in the same position in the air until the 'disturbance' has traveled from the top end to the bottom end.