Greetings and Salutations.

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 03:45:12 GMT, (Roy) wrote:

I have heard on numerous occasion that a penny thrown off the top
observation tower of thr Empire State building can hit the ground with
enough force to crack a 6" concrete slab. I used to believe this
statement when I was a kid, but have a hard time buying it as fact
now. I just can't see it being fact, and see it more of an old wives
type tale. I don;t really think you could throw a penny that hard and
far enough to make it reach out sufficiently to clear the lower floors
stepped out structure anyhow.

As a matter of fact, the show "Mythbusters" took on this very
thing just the other day. The results were that the penny, if it
made it PAST those structures, would hit hard enough to bounce, but
would not only NOT damage the concrete, but likely would only have
(at most) bruised a person if it hit them. Yea...they tested that
too, by sticking their hand in the path of the penny (Never said these
guys were BRIGHT, after all).
They used a modified pneumatic nail gun to get the velocity
on the penny. I seem to remember it was a Senco...but, I am really
not sure. In any case, it was an interesting show.
Actually, I have to throw in a plug for the show, in general.
These guys do seem to have a clue about what they are doing, and
they fabricate some interesting stuff (often out of metal) to test
their theories. One of the recent shows also had them building a
cannon from a tree trunk (OMWC - Blacksmith making hoops for strength
and applying them hot). The myth was that this German town had made
a cannon overnight, to repel the invaders, but, it blew up on them
with the first shot, killing many townsfolk. The results, by the by,
were that the mythbusters came to the conclusion that there was NO
way that the townsfolks could have cored a tree trunk that was eight
feet or more long in a night. With hand augers, they only got a few
inches down after much struggling. They ended up using a Hole Hawg
to run the rest of the hole. On the other hand, they only managed
to destroy the cannon by packing it with WAY too much powder - I
forget how much, but, it was up at 20 lbs (of black powder) or more.
It fired pretty well with smaller loads, though.
Regards
Dave Mundt