Here is the list. This one surprised me:
[Myth] "A penny dropped from the top of a tall building could kill a pedestrian"[Truth] A
penny isn’t the most aerodynamic of weapons. A combination of its shape
and wind friction means that, tossed even from the 1,250-foot Empire
State Building, it would travel fast enough merely to sting an unlucky
pedestrian.
FYI, the Mythbusters have quite entertainingly done a few of these over the years, including the penny dropped from the Empire State Building one you mention
What if it was spinning really fast(like a wheel) as it was falling?
OK, I’m now on board with eliminating the penny. Sure you can’t spend it or melt it down for copper, but you can’t even kill someone in a ridiculous way with it? Time to move on, America.
What if it was spinning really fast(like a wheel) as it was falling
DK must not have played with Model rockets as a kids because he has described the “tumble recovery” method used on the smallest, lightest model rockets: make the rocket unbalanced on descent so that it spin like crazy. This has two benefits. First, potential energy that would have gone into kinetic energy (falling faster) instead goes to rotational energy (spinning faster). Second, the more those edges flail about the more turbulent eddies are created, which create more drag, which is the whole name of the game for slowing a falling object.
Short answer: a fast spinning penny would fall even slower than a non-spinning penny.
Actually they say that essentially at least two are true…chickens can live with their heads cut off and cat always land on their feet (given half a chance).
My favorite myth is the greenhouse effect. This is usually described as glass lets in sunlight and warms the interior, but IR radiation is blocked so that the greenhouse heats up. (thus the “greenhouse” effect with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere). In reality this effect is swamped by the effect of limiting convection losses, by the walls limiting air movement.
In other words you get just as good a greenhouse if you build it of a material that does not block radiated heat…the key thing is to block air movement.
Let me be clear here, before I get jumped on. The myth involves actual greenhouses not the earth.
Squirrels will not die from a fall at terminal velocity, nor will anything smaller, e.g. a mouse.
Cats are borderline – I recall reading an article with a plot of death rate vs. floor they fall from (NYC balconies), but I can’t find it now.
Re: tylerh on “tumble recovery rockets”, I always found the idea of “tumble recovery” a bit of a myth itself, as the rockets purported to use such a recovery method, even without an engine casing, were quite stable and aerodynamic, and would come back to Earth nose first. However, they were so lightweight, terminal velocity was rather low, as was the force when they hit the ground.
>> Squirrels will not die from a fall at terminal velocity, nor will anything smaller, e.g. a mouse.
I knew a turtle, smaller than my fist, who jumped out an apartment window, not sure why. and she died. agonized for a few hours though.
I can’t agree with them when they tell me that yawning is not contagious. How many times have you yawned after watching someone else yawn? I guess if they define contagious to follow some absolute billiard ball causality … but, then again, diseases like aids and the common cold don’t follow that either.
Also, animals seem to get antsy before storms and such. Maybe they aren’t predicting the weather but something’s going on.
this shit is wack as fuck and all you losers suk pito
“I wish that page made it clearer which are myths and which aren’t.”
They are all myths.
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