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When Snape killed Dumbledore in "Half Blood Prince", and Dumbledore's body was flung off the balcony of the Astronomy Tower (the tallest tower of Hogwarts, by the way) by the blast of Snape's spell, why didn't his body go KER-SPLAT when it hit the ground?

The Tower is pretty damn steep, and Dumbledore was already dead so there was no way for him to slow his own fall or change his trajectory, so why didn't the shock of landing so hard and fast, regardless of landing in soft, British grass, cause his body to become a splattered mess all over the grounds?

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    I'm not sure what you mean. His body probably didn't remain undamaged, but a hundred-foot fall, say, is hardly going to "splatter" someone "all over the grounds." Many people have actually survived falls from that height.
    – Adamant
    Commented Sep 15, 2017 at 5:35
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    I would say, Dumbledore enchanted Hogwarts so that if a student fall from a tower they make a slow landing as in the Quidditch in PoA. This is something Dumbledore would do to protect eleven year olds from towers and windows and their own stupidity.
    – atakanyenel
    Commented Sep 16, 2017 at 1:02
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    While the answer to this question turns out to be real world science, I'm not sure that makes the question off-topic, it could have been to do with the magic as far as the OP knew. 'No special reason, things are like that in the real world too' seems like a perfectly good answer for this site, every bit as much as 'no, there's no canon example of that' or, 'it's not specifically addressed' or 'actually, it's for OOU reasons' are and these being the answers do not normally get the question closed
    – Au101
    Commented Sep 16, 2017 at 3:24

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People don't go SPLAT

Human skin is incredibly tough and terminal velocity is only around 53 m/s (195 km/h or 122 miles/h). To reach that velocity1 takes 5.4 seconds meaning a fall of greater than 143 m (470 feet) - say a 40 story building. The Astronomy tower is tall but not that tall. Let's say its a generous 50 m (164 feet) tall, this fall takes just over 3 seconds and Dumbledore hits the ground at 31 m/s (111 km/h or 69 miles/h) - motorcyclists run into cars at this speed all the time: they usually die but they don't go SPLAT.

Now, most of his bones would have broken and some may have come through the skin but, in general, the skin would hold him together.

In fact, because of terminal velocity, even parachutists whose chutes fail don't usually go SPLAT. Unless the ground is broken so that it actually acts like a series of knives, the skin survives the impact even if the occupant of the skin doesn't.

1 In a vacuum. Of course, in a vacuum there is no terminal velocity but is serves as a limit for falling in atmosphere and is close enough for this purpose.

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    Also, terminal velocity in earth atmosphere is limited by air resistance, so free fall acceleration does not apply when one falls from an airplane or similar heights.
    – TimSparrow
    Commented Sep 15, 2017 at 12:02

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