I've always been fascinated by the idea of a bottomless pit and recently I've seen two mentions of them Journey to the Center of the Earth, the film, and Red Seas Under Red Skies, a novel) that have got me thinking. Not about the reality of a bottomless pit. Obviously such things cannot exist. Testing an impossible thing is, of course, impossible. More interesting to me is the science aspects of the real things (humans and other bios) that find themselves falling in a bottomless pit.

For example: You'll die, one assumes of thirst. But what then? How would something compose in scenario where there's oxygen, and gravity, but constant movement? Would the bacteria already on you do the job? I guess it would, but how long would it take? Would it be slower?

Also, a body in a dead fall, that is not conscious and trying to balance itself, falls toward the head, right? Would decomposition change that? What's the proportional weight of a human skeleton in the top and bottom halves like? Would the various surfaces of the top half of a decomposing body eventually catch enough air in the fall to flip it over to to feet down? Basically, as a human body decomposes while falling through a bottomless pit, would it eventually right itself from a dead fall position?

I guess fantasy type situations like this aren't really what the Mythbusters do, and I have no idea how you'd test something like that, but I'm curious if anyone has any opinions.