Can dropping a penny off the Empire State Building really kill someone if it hits them?

[EXman]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: Elixer
I never did understand *why* people would even attempt to do this.😕

I mean, you throw it down, and then when you leave, what, you check for some dead/injured person, and yell 'Oh yeah!!!! I did that! And high-five em? ':roll:

It's probably my drunkeness but this is funny

naw it is funny!

 

[amdhunter]

I don't know about a penny, but slamming a plane on the side might do some damage...

 

[StevenYoo]

there are some MAJOR cross winds at the top of that building.

any low mass object will be tossed and turned on its way down via these winds, undoubtedly slowing it down.

Oh, and rock salt.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Leros
No. The coin does not have enough mass to do any damage even at terminal velocity.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
The penny will tumble.
My high school physics teacher said that you'd be the one in danger though if it hit someone. Since you're in NYC, the person you hit will probably be armed, and they'll race up there and shoot you. 😛


Now maybe if you took a bullet, emptied out the gunpowder leaving the tip weighted, very carefully glued tiny stabilizing fins to it, and then dropped it, maybe it wouldn't tumble. Then it could possibly achieve considerable speed before embedding itself in someone's head.

Your high school physics teacher clearly hasn't been to the ESB, otherwise (s)he would know that no one would spend 2 hours and $20 in that tourist trap just to shoot you in NYC.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: Arcadio
I think mythbusters already did it.

They obviously did not use the Empire State Builing, but they mimiced it under the same conditions.

 

[Minjin]

I think it was proved to be a myth by some show. They said it had something to do with rock salt...

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: amdhunter
I don't know about a penny, but slamming a plane on the side might do some damage...

Not if the plane's on a treadmill.

 

[amdhunter]

Originally posted by: Gibsons

Originally posted by: amdhunter
I don't know about a penny, but slamming a plane on the side might do some damage...

Not if the plane's on a treadmill.

Of course it would because the building would take off.

 

[Scarpozzi]

The real question is whether or not a person would survive if you stood a penny up on end and threw the person off the empire state building. Then could the penny kill them or would it just break their fall?