The Surprising Truth About Pennies and Their Deadly Potential
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Chapter 1: The Myth of the Penny's Lethality
During a childhood visit to New York City, I was struck by the towering skyscrapers that seemed to touch the sky. The sheer height of these buildings left me pondering: what if something fell from the top?
My imagination ran wild when I heard tales of people tossing pennies off the Empire State Building. Could a simple penny, so ordinary and harmless, actually be lethal?
Terminal Velocity: What You Need to Know
When discussing falling objects, we often mention terminal velocity, a term that might sound like something out of a thriller movie, but it’s rooted in physics.
Terminal velocity refers to the highest speed an object can reach as it falls through an environment, which varies depending on the object.
Think about skydiving: initially, you float for a moment before gravity pulls you toward the earth at a rapid rate of 9.81 meters per second. However, you won’t continue to accelerate indefinitely. Instead, air resistance eventually balances out the force of gravity, resulting in a maximum speed of about 200 km/h (120 mph) when arms and legs are spread out.
If you tuck your body into a streamlined position, that speed can increase to approximately 290 km/h (180 mph). You will reach this top speed after about six seconds of free fall.
So, if you happen to leap from a plane, relax—your maximum speed will be around 120 mph if you’re spread out!
However, we aren't throwing humans off skyscrapers (thankfully, that's illegal). We're tossing pennies, which have a significantly lower terminal velocity of about 40-50 mph—just a bit faster than a ping-pong ball. While a penny striking you at that speed could leave a mark, it’s unlikely to cause serious injury.
The Penny Gun Experiment
Fortunately, I don’t need to invent a device to launch pennies at high speeds; the Mythbusters have already explored thi