About this game
How Long Would You Survive? asks you to put a number on situations most of us only know from films. Our instincts about them are often wrong in both directions: people tend to think they would last longer at altitude than they would, and far less time in freezing water than they really have.
Every answer comes with its source, and every scenario ends with what actually helps. A few are true stories, because some of the most surprising survival times are ones that really happened.
What changed in this version
The earlier version of this page had a few answers that were dramatic but not true. It said the deep ocean would crush you in a fraction of a second and that you would sink into lava. In fact your body is mostly water and does not crush like an empty can, and molten rock is about three times denser than water, so you would not sink into it. Those scenarios are gone. In their place are situations where the numbers have been measured, recorded or written into training manuals.
The answers and sources
| Scenario | Answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| No suit in space | About 15 s to blackout | NASA accounts, 1966 LeBlanc accident |
| Airliner at 35,000 ft | 15 to 30 s of useful consciousness | FAA and USAF tables |
| Everest summit, unacclimatised | About 1 to 3 min | Time of useful consciousness tables |
| Through the ice | About 1 hour to unconsciousness | 1-10-1 cold water rule |
| Desert at 49 °C, no water | About 2 days resting in shade | US military survival manuals |
| Avalanche burial | About 15 to 18 min before survival drops steeply | Brugger et al., Swiss avalanche data |
| Antarctic wind, bare skin | Frostbite in 5 min or less | US National Weather Service |
| Inside a humpback whale | About 30 to 40 s | Michael Packard, 2021 |
| Venera 13 on Venus | 127 minutes | Mission records, 1982 |
| Alone on a raft | 133 days | Poon Lim, 1942 to 1943 |
How to play
- Read the scenario and the question. Each round asks for something slightly different.
- Drag the slider to your guess. It runs from one second to one year on a logarithmic scale, so each step is a multiple, not an amount.
- Lock it in and watch the real timeline play out, compressed into a few seconds.
- After ten rounds, the debrief shows every guess against every answer.
Questions
What is How Long Would You Survive?
A free guessing game about extreme places. Ten scenarios, from losing cabin pressure at 35,000 feet to falling through ice or being scooped up by a whale. For each one you guess how long something takes on a scale from one second to a year, then watch what happens, compressed into a few seconds, and learn the real figure and where it comes from.
Where do the numbers come from?
Each scenario shows its source. Some are physiology estimates used in aviation and cold-water training, such as time of useful consciousness tables and the 1-10-1 cold water rule. Some come from studies, such as the Swiss avalanche survival curve. Some are real events: the Venera 13 lander, the 2021 humpback whale encounter and Poon Lim's 133 days on a raft.
How is my guess scored?
On a logarithmic scale, because the answers run from seconds to months. A guess inside the real range scores 100. Otherwise you lose points for every factor of ten you are out: a guess twice too long or short scores about 89, ten times out scores 65, and a hundred times out scores 30. Ten rounds make a maximum of 1,000.
Why are the Mariana Trench and lava scenarios gone?
Because they were not true. Your body is mostly water, so deep-sea pressure would not crush you in an instant, and lava is about three times denser than water, so you would not sink into it. Neither makes a good survival question, so this version replaced them with scenarios where real, sourced figures exist.
Is this survival advice?
No. It is a curiosity game with honest numbers, and real outcomes vary enormously with clothing, fitness, weather and luck. Each scenario does include what actually helps, from putting your own oxygen mask on first to staying calm in the first minute in cold water, because those are worth remembering. In an emergency, contact your local emergency services.
Is anything saved?
Your best total score and your recent games are kept in your browser's local storage so you can try to beat them. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account.
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