to provide adequate protection in most cases preferably for the purpose of extra safety a seven sixteenth inch thickness should be used testing of the padding comprised the use of a five pound steel cylinder of 2 4 square inches cross sectional area dropped on a sample from twenty four inches there is no direct way of testing the effectiveness of this invention in vivo one cannot in good conscience give on hundred elderly people samples of the present invention with one thickness of protective material and one hundred with another thickness and cause them to fall to see to what extent the one group is better protected than the other what has been done instead for the purpose of developing a safe garment is the following reports by the society of automotive engineers stapp reports sae 885 show the approximate threshold force that is required to fracture hips of test cadavers cadavers do not have the additional protection of surrounding elastic tissue that live people have therefore to assume forces in terms of cadavers makes it even safer for live people the material used for the pads in this invention was picked to absorb sufficient shock during a fall to.