With Mythbusters: The Explosive Exhibition here at MSI, things falling has been on my mind. You get to test the falling toast myth ("Butter Side Down") inside the exhibition, but what is the truth behind falling pennies and falling cats?
A cat recently fell from the 19th floor of a building, and survived with little damage. Not because it has nine lives, but because of physics, cat anatomy, and a little kitty know-how!
And city dwellers will be glad to hear that pennies dropped from tall buildings do not become uncontrollable projectiles of death. Like cats, the pennies have quite a bit of surface area compared to their mass – which creates so much drag that they end up with a pretty boring terminal velocity.
Could a Penny Dropped Off a Skyscraper Actually Kill You? [Scientific American]
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