by Regulus » October 2nd, 2011, 8:16 pm
Let's just make some quick assumptions here. Let's say Mufasa's mass is 200kg (about average for a male lion), and the distance he fell is 30m. When he hits the bottom of the gorge, he would be falling at a speed of approximately 30 meters per second. For a mass of 200kg to be decelerated from 30 meters per second to 0 nearly instantly, that takes a lot of force. I can tell that's going to be a force of several tons without even doing the calculations. To put that into perspective, the force a small car's tire exerts on the ground is about a quarter of a ton, assuming equal weight distribution.
Considering that Mufasa landed on his back, it's a safe bet that when he hit the ground, every bone in his spine would be shattered. Even without the beasts, he would have died. It's also important to remember that he was already injured from saving Simba, and even if he hadn't have fallen, he might have died a few days later due to internal injuries anyway.
I don't really like Scar, but I have to admit, his plan for killing Simba and Mufasa was brilliant.