20/20 Myth: Dropping A Penny From A Tall Building Is Deadly

[evant11keelan11]

nope it dont work

[hunterb1013]

lead would work so would a plank of wood or people or a FUCKING CAR!!!!

[maplebanks]

hailstone falls from a greater hight but dosent kill people

[kalche745]

Air resistance is acting upon the penny (other then F_g = mg aka gravity), Air resistance can be in many directions rendering the penny's force to be arbitrary, but not strong enough to kill. Thought about this while studying for Physics final. XD. If it was a bullet/sharp object, where you shot it with a perfectly vertical force, air resistance wouldn't be arbitrary and you got a powerful force.

[mayadaj1]

Through 2:14 and 2:39 he looks like a retard catching bird poop !

[Flinty88]

if it hit the ground hard enough it might flatten out into a quarter or something? wtf?

[hbeal05]

Umm retard try dropping a penny 10 feet and have it hitting your hand it stings a little bit try dropping it off the sears tower wich is over 20 stories tall how bad will that hurt retard

[thetrickster9898]

only i spelled that wrong

[thetrickster9898]

is wouldent work thats onls a small penny how in the name of jesus is the going to harm someone stuped americans

[DillonNguyen]

@thetrickster9898 Are you stupid? Maybe you're just retarded or not educated. If you add distance and the effect of gravity. That penny is a speeding bullet coming from that distance.

[MrCubansamxxx]

@DillonNguyen You're a retard and don't know physics. Look up the term terminal velocity. Then look up how fast a bullet has too travel to penetrate a body. It is only a myth. -___-

[SuperCaveman16]

what about if i dropped a nuke from the top of the atmosphere that would probably have less damage as a penny.

[EstupedMexicanz]

What about a gold bar.

[zZ1daniel1Zz]

holy shit i didnt know a penny could turn into a quarter!!! i need to drop hundreds of pennys off

[angrysantacat]

bowling ball!!!

[ot2kloon]

im gonna try it from the Burj Khalifa! :D

[RicRok25]

Did he die?

[haloboy217]

well if it was true why dosnt anyone drop a piggybank off the empirestate building?

[haloriver]

two words terminal velocity

[macrent2]

A barbell would kill someone

[poopnut666]

i always wanted to throw a cat down the sears tower see if it will live

[x0ticShwty]

"a penny might flatten out into a quarter..." <- smh

[gmizuno21]

@x0ticShwty where do you get yo shit that you smoke lol

[HBSBMX]

Drop a pigeon  (slap) fail.....

[TheDriver713]

"if it hit the ground hard enough it might flatten out into a quarter or something"

DUDE WTF ARE YOU SMOKING!!!!

[dalejrfan800]

@TheDriver713 Haha, no shit...

[OldSolidSnakeGaming]

I'd like to drop something off the Empire State Building with a camera on it and see how fast it would travel!

[GGA44]

drop a tank

[sonicspeed011]

Drop a car

[B789c]

@sonicspeed011 drop chuck norris

[sonicspeed011]

@B789c

dude, do you know how fucked up you are?

dropping Chuck Norris will be like the dinosaurs all over again!

[ASuperN00b]

@B789c,that my friend would be suicide.

[davlyn20]

lol, what a retarded death. you get to the heaven:

-how did you die ?

-a penny falled on me.

[netster007z]

Yeah I heard this one all the time as a kid.

[sladesyd]

Drop a bowling pin 0_o

[kiwisonlegend007]

@sladesyd BALL POINT PEEEEENNNNNN!

[JulianShagworthy]

haha its borat

[GameReviewsYoshi]

depends where it hits you,

[phin3s]

Wow, these people are complete idiots.... especially the one that is like "If it hits the ground hard enough, it might flatten out into a quarter" what in the heck is he talking about? So if the penny hits the ground hard enough, the copper/zinc would turn into copper/nickel? What are they teaching in schools these days??

[ChaosDude13]

doesen't kill mythbusters proved it

[Chrystar009]

we should drop a fat kid down instead it would be much funnier

[XxFallenAngelzX13]

LOL mental image hahhaa

[101binary101]

your talking about yourself, right?

[dalejrfan800]

@Chrystar009 Search, "Why fat people don't bungie jump".

[MKWFunky]

@Chrystar009 lmfao

[EGarrett01]

From what I understand, it can't go faster than terminal velocity.

[phin3s]

@EGarrett01 Terminal Velocity would be plenty fast enough to kill someone if the mass was much greater. The mass of the penny at terminal velocity isn't even enough to break skin.

[scabbernacker]

The original saying was said about an old English penny from the 1800's to the first half of the 1900's which is about an inch across and much thicker and heavier than the modern day penny - I still doubt it would kill anyone though (would hurt a lot thu).

[LcoolJfiveoh]

a marbel would be better

[pauken0022]

im up to try it!!!

[xSONxOFxCALIFAS]

i dont know about a penny but a big ass rock should work

[gmizuno21]

@xSONxOFxCALIFAS or a can of soda

[sean5usa]

i was at the eiffel tower and my friend threw a british pound coin off of it, i was shocked and could not believe he did that, when we got to the bottom i did not see anyone hurt

[Airbus294]

@sean5usa a pound coin? did he not have a penny, or was he like - ohhh, look at me I'm gonna waste a pound...

[nytegazer]

MythBusters did an episode with this myth in it. They proved it wouldn't kill you, but you'd get a real good knock on the skull, maybe even a crack, I'm not sure.

[CBRushing586]

maybe it will flatten out into a quarter or something...are you kiddingme dude?

[AlmightyFRACTA]

are you retarded.

[Scoforever]

Yes he is.

[DPrinceProductions]

Thats just a myth spread by adults to stop kids throwing stuff off buildings, if it would fall at the same rate as a bowling ball, if the bowling ball fell at the same rate, the ball would kill someone, the penny wouldnt.

[wackawacka14]

I learned that when I was ten, god some americans are just so uneducated( I am american)

[bluebooy2011]

we learned this in 8th grade

air resistance that is

[5spoonfest5]

I cant believe people would ever give this myth two seconds. Its so obvious the air resistance would slow it down to such a slow speed....

[sweeeeet90909090]

the penny will not kill you no matter how fast it is going because of terminal velocity and its mass are to low to be leathal

[Diaper1rash]

u tink ur smart lol that was on myth buster u fatty

[sweeeeet90909090]

ya no shit sherlock that will destroy any 20/20 shit ever made

and it Mythbusters

[abrozak]

sox rule!!!!!

[hagbard72]

That's important to know..I was just going up on the Empire State Building to drop off some loose change.

[nubowns]

also, Wind would stop this from working, It might not definitely kill but a quarter or a dollar coin would.

[nubowns]

onlypedro, you don't understand that this is true. I'm a Science teacher in highschool. I teach Seniors in chemistry , physics, and i've taught biology and General Science. And i am very well aware that this could kill someone. The momentum of the penny falling down from that height could easily kill someone if it hits their head or any other vital area. Now obviously if it hits their foot or leg your not going to die but this can very well kill someone. A napkin has no weight, it would float.

[themanfromthehouse]

Fail the terminal velocity of a penny is no where near fast enough to kill someone. maybe a baby because the have soft skull.

Mythbuster will teach you a lesson

[Gamermatt99]

apparently nobody has ever taken physics... or has common sense

[minijackass204]

they did it on mythbusters, it wont

[siremorich]

they did indeed. hurt like a bitch though

[8squishyfishy8]

as awesome as he is, john stossel just cant quite trump the mythbusters

[luckyvet]

think about how far a chunk of hail falls. Has a penny sized piece of hail ever killed anyone?

[TrooperLFC]

look, if you want to kill someone by throwing summunk off the 10th floor, best throw a brick or a refrigerator.

[bettydaw1970]

ahh the penny myth off the empire state building..perpetuated like religion is, and people believe it..

[Elisepalmtree]

The closest I got to this was getting hit in the head with a penny the fell of a appartment building XD

[teamhex]

Terminal Velocity.....look it up

[TimpBizkit]

If there was no atmosphere resistance to the penny all the way down, then would it develop enough to kill someone/hurt someone.

Vmax=(2gh)^0.5

=(2x9.81x381)^0.5

=86.5m/s or 193.5mph

[cmichael442]

or ur full of bs or ur smart man

[spragg101]

That balloon was clearly not as high as the empire state building

[RitafHolledo]

There's a maximum speed for falling objects you know...

[dumbtreeclimber]

spragg101: Ever heard of a word called Terminal Velocity? In our dense atmosphere, objects have a maximum speed that they can reach before they stop accelerating under gravity

(32.2 feet/sec/sec). For most objects, such as a human, brick, bowling ball-this speed is 120 mph, and is reached after falling for about 400 feet. It doesn't matter if you fall from 4,000 feet or 400 feet, you're going to hit the ground at the same speed. As for a penny, terminal velocity is only about 50 mph.

[spragg101]

I had heard of it but never knew what it meant, cheers for that

[lin2k4]

Ballpoint pens... can be deadly

[sambiggy4u]

so u still think that a penny can kill someone?

[ShadowRejects]

what about an egg?

[TimpBizkit]

a pound coin might kill

[sambiggy4u]

it cant kill because of air resistance

[hobodude68]

cool avenue q is in this!

[BennMackay]

Why do most american news reporters sound like primary school teachers?

[giantchickenguy]

OMOGMOGMGOMGOMG! AVENUE Q!! OMG!

[Gtrplyr1]

to me it doesn't seem possible with wind velocity and the weight of the penny.. i don't see it picking up enough speed to do damage.. mayber a quarter thrown downwards might hurt??

[jpb11380]

They tested it out on Mythbusters, it didnt work

[bark00000]

you trust mythbusters results 100% of the time? (not that they are wrong on this one...)

[sambiggy4u]

it might hurt but IT WILL NOT KILL

[oatsandmilk]

lmao it doesnt work btw

[BRIANTOWN33]

not everyone believes that, they just used commentary from idiots who think that it would, that man on the street interview is BS, just like when they show how stupid the average American is, and while I'm at it: all reality tv is scripted bullshit, it wouldn't be a show if everyone just went about their normal, boring business, they add a lot of outlandish shit and controversy to keep idiots tuned in so they can "sell soap" this is how money is made in television

[bluecheerstar510]

well than america must be pretty un-average.

[Ookamiboy12]

mythbusters proved that it would really hurt but it wouldn't be fatal

[Dominonator]

yeah, i posted that one!

[OnlyAPawn1970]

People just accept these stupid myths and never question them.You could start nearly any myth and it would probably spread like wild fire.Question everything.

[babygangster911]

Gay freaks at my school say #### like this. If a penny would kill us frome a building, why doesnt hail kill us from a cloud. Common sense.

[Darkwolfx16]

gangster you have a good point, but the clouds are in the the stratosphere and when hail drops it goes through a couple of layers and gravity slows it down but the building is in the edge of the troposphere itl fall without gravity/layers slowing it down

[niruobas55]

I wonder if I threw my girlfriend Penny off the ESB if anyone she hit would be hurt? She weighs 120 lbs but she does not look very aerodynamic.

[johnnythrust55]

that means that hail would kill us

[OMFGSTFU101]

nah just hurts like heck x.x

[dougat]

the more serious question is would it be heads or tails?

[Jahnsie]

Sad that obviously some americans can´t think logical and need books to tell them how everything works :D

[IvanX]

nerd

[neilswann80]

Lead ball bearing would do the job! Handful of marbles perhaps?

[Kenny2k08]

So I guess that means that I can throw a penny off the Empire State Building when I go to NY.

[blossom114]

Heheh :) Once I saw this header I immediately thought of Avenue Q. Seriously, most hilarious musical ever.

[StealSpartan]

all the mathematicians and physcists were shaking their heads when they saw the people say it would kill the someone. lol

[ebonics4everyone]

I know a man who lost an eye, when he looked up at a skyscraper and got his eyeball poked out by a flying pencil.

[vanzeppelin33]

once the termenol velocity is reached it still mouldn't be enoght to hurt someone just bruise them, uf it ever reached them

[FrosteeTheSnowman]

it would just reach terminal velocity but probably wouldnt because it flutters too much

plus think about hail - that falls way farther and have you ever heard of penny sized hail killing anyone?

[deathly135]

yes, when it comes to hail it doesn't matter about the size

[redeye117]

If iam not mistaken Myth Buster tried it and prove that it cant kill person.

[djdoc]

You are correct, sir!

[txcowgirl18]

did they really? I haven't seen that episode.

[jeffshmee]

and for anyone who questions my last comment i will explain further... the weight of something is how much gravity is effecting it....the mass is the true substence of the object.... weight on earth is affected by mass....the more mass the heavier it is.. therefore a penny..with

[jeffshmee]

not much mass... will not have much weight...therefore gravity affects it less... and it will fall slowly... so after the extra speed uve added by ur throw as been slowed by the air....the penny is falling very slowly...and if it hit you...it might bruise...but not kill

[saltyshoelace]

too many dot dot dots.

[jeffshmee]

after a few hundred feet it wouldnt matter how higher u dropped it from!! any1 heard of terminal velocity???? its how fast something can fall under its own weight.... like how fast something would travel if you through it off the empire state.a pennys it 65mph and something with that mass traveling that speed is no way strong enough to kill someone... plus even if they fired it out of a GUN at 300+ mph...like the mythbusters it barely breaks the skin as they proved!

[Mamba205]

after about 500 feet an object reaches its terminal velocity. the termial velocity of a penny is about 60-65 mph.

[Bitchesgivehigh5s]

i thought the MythBusters episode when they tested it was Okay but when u throw a penny off the updraft would just pick the penny back up and land on another level of the building but u could never make it to the point where the penny would fall thats what Mythbusters said.

[hamwinkie]

mythbusters are idiots though. They are so wrong at times it , well ruins the show. They are a cute couple though!

[joelnikma]

no duh it didnt hurt him, ur sopposed to drop a penny from 1,250 ft, not a few hundred/

[Mamba205]

after 500 feet an orject reaches its terminal velocity the fastest it will go, where the speed of the object stays the same when gravity and wind resistance balance.

[elli782]

Before I get through watching this video witch im at (1:43) I think the mith is bulshit maybe hurt or bruse somrbody but KILL THEM!?.

[girzwald]

Most people believe this myth because they think that a falling object will just fall faster and faster and faster exponentially with no end. Terminal velocity prevents that. If said penny even falls long enough to reach it. This is all off the top of my head from high school science class, so I might be wrong. Its been 7 years.

[TheHoustonKid]

True... in fact a penny's terminal velocity is barely even enough to draw blood.

[flaminchip]

its fake peenies wont kill you it will leave a indent in your head

[GoWLegendrKo]

wow americans are truley stupid

[ozabobododo]

There is no E in truly, you must be american.

[SakuraElyse]

The beginning of a sentence is capitalized, and so is America. I dont care where either of you are from. Clearly THIS American, is far less stupid than either of you.

Have a nice day.

[theperfectcraft]

The only test he did started the pennies out flat, so of coarse they're going to twirl in the air.

If theres even a 1 in million chance it could fall perfectly aerodynamically could the penny gain enough speed to harm someone?

My only point is that if you dropped something that was very aerodynamic (not a penny) But of the SAME WEIGHT... COULD IT GAIN ENOUGH VELOCITY TO HURT SOMEONE?

...just to show what that 1 in a million penny would do to your face if you looked up...

[kevincaz07]

MYTHBUSTERS!!! tested this

[MrMss4]

@ superdau

its only half education's fault, the other half is the lazy sons of bitches that are too lazy to think in school.

[BlackMass85]

People are so stupid I wish it would kill them

[sckoodudey2k]

John Stossell is a pussy bitch who got owned by a pro wrestler. Look up the clip on YouTube.

[perfectionbox]

I always drop two pennies so that if someone does get killed, then at least their eyes can be covered soon after.

[Canary184]

everything in a dead fall goes at the same speed right? no matter what the size

[Kotelic]

that's not necessarily the case. Each object has a terminal velocity (maximum) based on air resistance. An aerodynamic cone and a flat piece of paper would not have the same velocity. Placed inside of a vacuum however they would only be affected by gravity and would fall and the same rate because there is no air resistance.

[iam16letterslong]

Thats why a feather floats down as fast as a bowling balls falls right?

No, that IS true about gravity, but not when you factor in air resistance. They actually did that experiment on the moon with a hammer and a feather and they did drop simultaneously, because there was no air.

[HaloJumpmaster]

Why is it always a skydiver that has to educate people about terminal velocity. IN A VACUUM a bowling ball and a feather have the same velocity. However, once a certain object has reached terminal velocity it can go no faster. Unless its a skydiver going 'head down'.

[purplenurple2]

MythBusters did a segment on this too. They "Busted" it.

[superdau]

Is the science education really that bad in the US that you need a TV report to bust a stupidity like this? What do I say, you don't even need science for this. It's common sense from simple oberservation. What happend to thinking people?

[craptasticles]

There's no such thing as "a stupidity."

[werns]

Big difference between letting a penny fall flat and spinning one down off the top edge first.

[theperfectcraft]

Wow... MYTH NOT BUSTED. What if the penny fell side first? Like the guy said, it would be going hundreds of miles per hour.

Also that stuuupid stuuuuuuupid test the guy did on a windy day... hardly scientific.

[emanpa68]

So do you really think the penny is going to stay on its side for the entire trip from the top of the building to the point of impact?

"Like the guy said, it would be going hundreds of miles per hour."

If you were paying attention, he was talking about a ball point pen...

"stuuupid stuuuuuuupid"

[theperfectcraft]

What if it DID thought? Then you might be a dead motherf*cker.

The only test he did started the pennies out flat, so of coarse they're going to twirl in the air.

If theres even a 1 in million chance it could fall perfectly aerodynamically could the penny gain enough speed to harm someone?

My only point is that if you dropped something that was very aerodynamic (not a penny) But of the SAME WEIGHT... COULD IT GAIN ENOUGH VELOCITY TO HURT SOMEONE?

[lsudolemite]

Damn near impossible. You'd have a hard time making something the mass of a penny that aerodynamic (low drag). Air resistance also depends strongly on the smoothness of the surface and its shape. Even then, without getting into the messiness of differential equations, terminal velocity just wouldn't be high enough to really hurt someone given its low weight.

On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend dropping a bowling ball from that height due to much greater momentum (mass*velocity)

[lautan]

thanks tips

[Daegoq]

He addressed it. Flat discs are not aerodynamically stable. They won't stay on edge. The air passing over the sides will be enough to spin in. And actually testing on a windy day is closer to actual conditions around tall buildings. The higher up you go the more windy it gets. Even when the ground level is completely still, higher elevations get windy. That's why tall buildings are designed to sway in the wind.

[schrankage]

Thanks for the "hard-hitting" investigative reporting 20/20.

[lunchbox184]

it would hurt but would not kill you

[SinJin78]

MYTHBUSTED!!

[danbabs]

INFORMATION. INFORMACIÓN.

[linkin54321]

What if you throw yourself? Will you die?

[jlebrech]

What if you throw a marble off the empire state building?

[emanpa68]

It would probably reach terminal velocity... Depending on its mass, you could calculate the damage. Your question is too general to answer exactly.

[bigblink]

20/20 should have just aired that episode of mythbusters. seeing a mold of a dummy get nicked from a penny shot at it from highspeeds in slow-mo, is much better than seeing a guy randomly trying to catch a penny from a balloon.

[SkylarEC]

Yeah, I sat this ion Mythbusters long ago. That's why I switched to dropping bricks instead.

[bobdole]

base your news facts on a puppet play..interesting.

[MozTS]

god this is so stupid.

[tomrcall]

i think it would kill if it hit on the rite part of the neck or head

[newbirth35]

I saw this on "Mythbusters." The penny wouldn't kill. :)

[2ez4u2luv]

if a penny wieghs 3.10 g and is traveling roughly 100mph ( b/c of drag) it would hit the ground at a force of 310 grams a pound is equal to 453.59237 grams. This would therefor cause virtually no damage.

[zombieball]

lol are you joking?!?!  First off what kind of person uses metric and imperial units in the same equation? Second of all you do realize you first used grams as a unit of mass and then you proceeded to use grams as a unit of force? Aiya, some one needs to go back to his high school physics class.

[capriciouscow]

100mph~45 m/s

We'll assume that the penny takes a tenth of a second to slow from 45m/s to rest on top of your head.

F=ma

F=(.031 kg)(450 m/s^2)

F=13.95 N or 3.13 pounds

If the penny lands flat on your head you would feel:

P=F/A

P=(13.95 N)/(.00028352 m^2)

P=49200 Pa or about half an atmosphere of additional pressure on your head when it hits.