We’re back with another edition of Urban Legend: Fact or Fiction. In this chapter, we are going to see if a coin dropped from a tall building can kill someone. So strap in for this high velocity tale.
The Story
Did you know that a penny thrown from the observation deck of the Empire State Building can gather enough momentum to kill someone below? The coin ends up going so fast it can break the pavement or put a hole in someone’s skull! That’s why you should never ever throw anything from a high building. Well, unless you want to be charged with murder.
Variants
The most popular setting for this urban legend is the Empire State Building since it is the world’s tallest building from 1931 until 1970 when the World Trade Center was erected. After the tragic events of September 11th 2001, it regained the title and holds it to this day.
However, this tale can be applied to practically any skyscraper or tall building.
Pop Culture
- 1995 – “The Simpsons” episode “Bart Sells His Soul” uses a different location for this urban legend, the Space Needle. In an episode of “Itchy & Scratchy” titled “Skinless in Seattle” we see Itchy lure his foe to Seattle’s famed building with a fake love note. Once his target arrives he tosses a penny down from the top of the building, but it misses Scratchy, burning a hole in the sidewalk. Annoyed, Itchy gets a bunch of miniature souvenir Space Needles, and proceeds to throw them down. These all miss as well but hit with enough force to become embedded in the pavement, forming the shape of a heart. Itchy gives up and saws off the top half of the Space Needle, which falls and hits Scratchy directly in the eye.
- 2025 – “Final Destination: Bloodlines” takes a much more straightforward approach. Towards the beginning we see a young child begin to throw a penny from a restaurant several stories up. A guard warns him of the dangers, which the kid pretends to be ignorant of. Once the guard turns his back the child throws the penny anyway. Setting off a devastating chain of consequences like only a “Final Destination” movie can.
Is it Real?
No, this legend relies on the logic that anything tossed from high up will continue to gain speed as it falls. The thing is, pennies are far too light (2.5 grams) and flat to fall straight down. Instead wind resistance makes them fall more like leaves, even when dropped from really high up.
Velocity is also a factor, since the coin is subjected to gravity and the drag of air resistance while it falls. And since it is traveling over a great distance, the faster it falls the more air resistance it meets. So the coin cannot experience a continual acceleration like this tale implies, since these factors will slow it down.
About 50 feet into the fall the penny will begin to descend at a constant rate known as terminal velocity. Which given the currency size and shape is only 25 mph, nowhere near enough to kill you. Just maybe cause some discomfort.
There are even some scientists who were brave enough to test this myth proving it false.
Experiment 1
University of Virginia physics professor and author of “How Everything Works,” Louis Bloomfield is one of these courageous souls. “They’re thinking of a world without air … but air resistance is a big deal for little things. It slows down leaves, it slows down raindrops and it slows down pennies,” Bloomfield explains. “The penny is heavier [than a raindrop] but it flutters as it comes down. It’s very unstable in the air.”
Despite this scientific backing he wasn’t able to test his hypothesis in the most straightforward way. “The ideal thing would be to drop a penny off the Empire State Building and catch it,” he said. “But sadly, no building will let us do this because they’re all worried about the myth!”
Instead he attached a remote controlled penny dispenser to a helium filled weather balloon. After launching the balloon hundreds of feet into the air he ran around trying to catch them. “The pennies didn’t hurt,” says Bloomfield. “They bounced off me and it felt like getting hit by bugs, big raindrops, or little hail pellets. No bruises, no injuries. I was laughing the whole time.”
Experiment 2
YouTuber Veritasium and “MythBuster”’s Adam Savage also tested out this tale with slightly different but nowhere near deadly results. For their experiment Savage went up in a helicopter loaded with pennies, while Veritasium stayed on the ground. Unfortunately the duo didn’t account for the “huge downdraft” caused by the helicopter’s wings, making the coins to hit much faster than if they were simply dropped from a great height.
But even with that factor, the pennies were still far from lethal. At one point Veritasium layed on the ground while Savage dumped a bucket of coins from the aircraft. “They feel like tiny little bullets. I feel like I’m going to be bruised after this,” he said. The popular YouTuber walked away looking like he had spent a day on the paintball field. You can watch footage of their experiment below.
Like the Killer in The Backseat urban legend this one is hard to kill inspite of the science because it isn’t bad advice. A penny dropped from a great height can’t kill you but a larger or more areodynamic object can. Telling people, espically children, not to throw something when it could potentially hit someone, is just good advice and manners.
The only possible way a penny could fall fast enough to do the kind of damage this urban legend suggests is if it was dropped in an airless vacuum. We doubt the powers that be would ever allow the Empire State Building to be put into such a scenario. So we feel safe in saying that this legend is:
