We have all heard this statement : The Empire State Building is so tall that if you were to drop a penny off from the top of it, that penny could kill someone. After learning about this in my physics class, I wanted to do more research and uncover the truth behind this alleged fact.
This statement which originated in New York City, says that if a person dropped something withe the same mass as a penny off something with such a great height, it could kill someone if hitting them in certain places. This myth has proven to be untrue. According to an article called “What if I threw a penny off the Empire State Building?” featured on HowStuffWorks.com, based on the weight and the shape of the penny, it could definitely injure someone but it cannot kill them. The penny is very flat which causes much air resistance, this air resistance sort of breaks the fall of the penny making the velocity decrease. Other evidence can be viewed on the Myth Busters video called “Penny Drop.” In this episode, the Myth Busters calculate the velocity at which a penny would fall and them demonstrated this with a staple gun. They shot the penny through the gun at the right speed at a gel skull that they made for this experiment. Although the penny was able to break through the first layer which represented the skin, it was unable to break through the skeleton layer which would be where the damage is caused.
Next time you hear someone say that if you drop a penny from the Empire State Building it can kill someone, make sure you inform them that due to physics, this is really no the case.
Sources:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/threw-penny-off-the-empire-state-building.htm
I actually watched this myth busters episode in one of my high school science classes. It blew my mind how this even became a theory in the first place, and people were just randomly dropping pennies off the top of it anyway to test it out. Which is complete crazy talk if they knew what the outcome could be. Could you imagine working in the empire state building and just watching pennies fly down all day long? Thank goodness there was a myth busters episode so people could stop believing it and trying to test it out.
This is interesting to think about, but I think I never really believed this fact despite hearing the rumors. I think that the concept of something with so little mass being able to even get a lot of speed and be able to kill somebody. I think that the mythbusters experiment could actually show more damage than they give credit for, however. If the penny punctured the “skin layer” of the ballistics gel, I think a hit to the eyeball or temple could possibly be fatal if this is what the experiments produced.
I enjoyed reading your blog post because this is actually something most people have heard and have not questioned. Most people hear facts like this and simply accept them as true. It is important to not believe everything you hear and research different facts before accepting them as true.
I am very interested in your blog because this question had been bothering me for years. Every time I go near the empire state building, this question pops up. Sometimes I actually wanted to drop a penny from the empire state building and see what happens, however I am scared of the result. (Don’t want anyone hurt or killed). Now a new question comes to mind, if a penny thrown from the empire state building can’t kill anyone, then can throwing a small rock kill someone? In your blog you said “The penny is very flat which causes much air resistance” but rocks aren’t flat, so it doesn’t cause much air resistance. I guess this question will pop up the next time I see the empire state building.
I found this article very interesting. I am from New York, and even there this is a spiraling debate. I always just believed that a penny dropped from the Empire State Building could kill because everyone always says it. Funny that everyone believes it but I doubt anyone ever went to the top and actually tried it. After doing some research of my own, I found myself able to agree with you in that a penny dropped from a skyscraper can’t kill. To add to your blog, according to Natalie Wolchover, a penny doesn’t accelerate during it’s fall and this is the reason it can’t kill, they “fluter” down. On the other hand, the article states that a ball point pen could kill someone if dropped from the Empire State Building. I wonder where they got this information and if any studies were conducted to prove that a pen could kill someone.