Whenever I pass by the Empire State building, I am always reminded of a certain well-known urban legend. According to this story, a penny thrown from the observation deck of the Empire State building could potentially gain enough velocity to kill a person standing on the ground.
Whether or not this is true has been the subject of debate for a while. Lucky for us, the Mythbusters tested out the claim using a handmade gun that fires pennies at 64.4 mph – the same speed a penny would hit the ground at when dropped from the top of the Empire State building.
As part of the test, they shot pennies into a dummy and found that only a little bit of damage was caused. Then, they used the gun to shoot each other. Although the impact did sting a little, there was no harm done overall. Even so, I wouldn’t go throwing pennies off the top of the Empire State anytime soon.
