Can dropping a penny off the Empire State Building really kill or injure anyone below?
613926
Why do people cite "Myth busters" as if it is some type of scientific source?\nIt is a TV show...and not a very good one at that.  Sometimes they get it "right", sometimes they are wrong.\nJustifying something because "they did it on Myth busters" is not a good idea if you want to be taken seriously.\n\nThe principle at work here is called terminal velocity.\nIn a vacuum, when an object is dropped, it continues to accelerate as it falls, its velocity ever increasing until it hits the ground.  However, most things (including the Empire State Building) are not in a vacuum, and thus, air resistance comes into play.  After the object is dropped, it will accelerate due to gravity.  As the object accelerates and its velocity increases, the frictional force acting on the object increases.  There will come a point when the frictional (upward) force exerted on the object is balanced by the objects weight (downward force).  When the forces are balanced, no acceleration takes place and the object maintains a constant velocity....called the terminal velocity.\n\nThe terminal velocity depends on several factors, two of which being the cross-sectional surface area the air pushes against, another being the mass of the object.\nA higher cross sectional area allows a higher frictional force.  A lower mass means the force applied will have a greater effect on accelerating the object due to Newton's 2nd law (F = ma).\nIn the case of a penny, the terminal velocity is probably pretty low because it has such a small mass with a relatively high surface area.  It would not take long for the penny to reach its terminal velocity and stop accelerating.  At this point, the penny is fallings as fast as it every will naturally through the air due to gravity.
922451
Actually there are cases of casualties and injuries.\n\nMythbusters the show on the discovery channel did an episode about this where they try to see if a bullet fired up into the air can come down and kill you.\n\nHere is a synopsis.\n\nEpisode 50: Bullets Fired Up, Vodka Myths III\n\n    * Bullets fired up into the air can be lethal: busted, plausible, and confirmed.\n  \n\nThe "all of the above" ruling on the bullets fired into the air myth was a new one for MythBusters. All of their tests showed that if you fire a bullet perfectly straight up into the air, it will not kill you as it will fall down on its side and have too low of a terminal velocity to kill, much like the Penny Drop myth. However, it is very difficult to fire perfectly straight into the air and they even found an international expert in falling bullets who was able to confirm for them that people have died from bullets fired up into the air.\nBullets Fired Up\n\nMyth: A bullet fired up can come down and kill you\nHow high would a bullet fly up?\n\nAdam's idea was to correlate the density of ballistics gel with the density of air (Jamie: "Huh."). Adam figured that if they could see how far a bullet traveled in ballistics gel, they could use the difference in density to calculate the distance it would travel through air. Adam calculated that the ballistics gel is 650x more dense than air, so, according to his theory, if a bullet fired into ballistics gel goes 1ft, it would go 650 ft through air. At least that was the theory: they would have to go to the firing range with some blocks of ballistics gel to see if it would work.\n\nThey lined up several blocks of ballistics gel end-on-end at the South San Francisco Police Department firing range (last seen in the Catching a Bullet with Your Teeth myth). They quickly ran into a problem. The 9mm round went through three blocks of ballistics gel for a total distance of about 5ft. The much more powerful .03-06 only went one block in. This wasn't so surprising given the results of the Bulletproof Water myth, though they didn't seem to anticipate the same happening with ballistics gel. The .30-06 rounds travel much faster, so they a greater tendency to break up on impact. Jamie managed to flip a block of ballistics gel with a final shot, finally putting an end to this particular avenue of testing: the ballistics gel was not going to help them figure out how far a bullet would fly up.\n\nBased on the failure of the ballistics gel experiment, they used a computer simulation program to calculate how high the bullets would travel up into the air. The calculations: *.03-6 10,000 ft 58 seconds\n\n    * 9mm 4,000 ft, 37 seconds\n\nTerminal velocity of a falling bullet\n\nAdam built an acrylic wind tunnel (much like the one in the Penny Drop myth). Air was shot up through the bottom and a bullet was dropped into the chamber. The terminal velocity was calculated based on the speed of the air needed to make the bullet stop falling. They figured that the terminal velocity was 100mph (150 ft/s). The wind tunnel also showed that the most stable falling position for the bullets was on their side.\nFiring bullets at terminal velocity\n\nThe rigged up an air hose to an aluminum pipe to launch the bullets at terminal velocity (150 ft/s). Their first shot put a good dent in the metal door. Their next target would be a pig's head, just as soon as they got the amount of air pressure tuned correctly. A chronograph was used to measure the speed of the bullet and a solenoid valve was attached to the tube to control the air flow.\n\nThey fired bullets from the pipe into the pig's head and recorded it all on the high-speed camera. At 166 ft/s, the 9mm bullet bounced right off of the pig's head. The .30-06 bullet did only slightly better, piercing the skin and then bouncing off.\n\nIt was looking like this was going to be busted, but, as it turns out, there is an international expert on falling bullet
528749
Humans don't generally bounce, so I'm thinking that if you drop her off the top of a skyscraper, she's going to go splat like a tomato.  Maybe she'll bounce around 10-30 centimeters due to the "recoil" effect of her hitting the ground.  Don't kill your boss; just quit your job if you are thinking about it.
490672
no, they've have to be in a very hot fire. but if that were the case then yes, the projectile could hurt someone, unless they were in wooden boxes then the effects would be confined within the packaging.
346252
Nefarious\n\n\nOOPS! I just heard a penny drop. ;)
745076
Maybe not, but it can turn into a crime when somebody gets shot over something silly.
1087202
One of the TV specials indicated that the WTC was designed to take the impact of jet plane.  However it was smaller one than what hit it.\n\nObviously each tower was able to absorb an impact above what it was designed for.\n\nThe near full load of jet fuel in the plane ignited and with the sprinklers not function due to the impact, the intense heat of the fire soften the structural beams.\n\nEventually the structure, already damage by the impact, failed because the reaming steel became too weak
921459
probably.  ask your local city government/police.
606688
You can definitely be convicted, as it is a crime..even if it's for a penny. It usually depends on the victim. Bus as the law states, there is a certain dollar amount limits - one level is a misdemeanor, next a felony, etc.
47862
No substance at all. Skyscrapers in New York City are designed to collapse straight down in the event of a catastrophic collapse (like from a severe earthquake).\n\nThis is a necessity because New York City has so many skyscrapers closely packed together. If one fell over sideways, it would cause a chain reaction like dominoes, causing millions of deaths.\n\nWTC7 collapsed due to fire. The firefighters decided not to fight the fire in the building because they knew that the building was empty, and that their efforts were better spent rescuing people trapped under the rubble.\n\nSince the fire was allowed to burn unchecked, it eventually weakened the steel members causing it to collapse.\n\n\nBackground information: The steel in the building DID NOT MELT. Steel has a strange property; when it gets heated to a certain temperature, it loses about half its strength.\n\nIf you don't believe that, think about this: why do city fire codes require steel beams to be sprayed with fireproofing material if steel can't catch fire? The fireproofing material is to prevent the steel from losing it's strength due to high temperatures.
200232
depends on the kind of fall and the trajectory
391989
Ever heard the old saying about throwing a penny to the ground from the top of the Empire State Building?\n\nThe mathematical equation below will explain it all...\n\nGravity + Large ball of ice = OUCH!\n\nEver wonder what Newton would have done if hit in the head with hail rather than an apple? LOL\n\n:)
485940
it is possible but there would be damage.
321542
Mythbusters did an episode about this. It is a myth. A penny's terminal velocity and mass is too small to kill a person.
605569
You could die if it erupted
778355
You have to be able to open a window that you can climb out without using any other obstacles to climb on to. If you can reach the top window and be able to escape out of it without any problems you should be fine. The size of the drop doesn't matter cuz the way the fire inspectors see it is people would rather break a leg or arm than burn to death cuz they cant open the window
770856
That's probably not a good idea...I knew someone personally who was killed that way. Just be careful and bring someone with you, or at least a phone. Good luck.