Re: a falling penny

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

On Tue, 22 Oct 1996, Patrick Clark wrote:

> For years my high school physics students have been telling me that if 
> you drop a penny from the top of the Empire State Bldg by the time it 
> reaches the ground it will be going fast enough to kill someone.
> Is this true or is it just one of those beliefs (like the direction of 
> the spin in an emptying toilet bowl depending on your hemisphere) that 
> is not based on fact?


Hi Pat!

I searched altavista for "urban legends archive" and found this:


        URL: http://www.urbanlegends.com


On this site, under "science", I found this:

          http://www.urbanlegends.com/science/penny_falling_impact.html


Go and take a look!  It answers your questions, has email from NASA tech
people, and discussion of a REAL zero-G chamber on earth, among other
interesting stuff. 


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