What if I threw a penny off the Empire State Building?
You might have heard the tale about a person who, standing on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, throws a penny and makes a wish. In the story, the penny falls and kills a pedestrian on the sidewalk below. This is one of those classic urban legends that is untrue but contains a grain of truth. Throwing a penny off the Empire State Building wouldn’t kill someone. A penny only weighs about a gram and it tumbles as it falls. Because of the tumbling and the light weight, there’s so much air resistance that the penny never really gathers that much speed before it hits its terminal velocity. A gram of weight traveling at a relatively slow speed might hurt a little if it hit you on the head, but it’s not going to kill you. The grain of truth embedded in this urban legend is the fact that falling objects — even ones that seem harmless — can do a lot of damage. That’s why people on construction sites wear hard hats.
