Fall factor

Fall factor is a way to measure how hard someone falls when rock climbing or doing other activities where they might fall. It's kind of like a ruler that lets you see how big the fall is compared to how much rope there is between the person and the anchor they are attached to.

Imagine you're climbing up a really tall wall and you slip and fall. If there's a lot of rope between you and the anchor point - which is like a big, strong hook that keeps you connected to the wall - then you won't fall very far before the rope catches you. But if there isn't much rope, you'll fall a lot farther before the rope stops you.

Fall factor tells you how much of the distance you'll fall before the rope catches you. If you have a fall factor of 1, it means the amount of rope between you and the anchor is exactly the same as the distance you fell. If you have a fall factor of 2, you fell twice as far as the amount of rope that was between you and the anchor.

So, if you're climbing and you fall, you want your fall factor to be as low as possible. That means there was a lot of rope between you and the anchor, and you didn't fall very far before being caught by the rope. A low fall factor is safer than a high one because falling a long way can hurt you and increase the risk of serious injury.