An urban myth

One day I was in my house and I didn't have nothing to do.I decided to sit on the sofa and start watching TV.As I was moving through the channels I saw that Mythbusters was starting on Discovery Channel.

In the begging of the show the narrator explained  what myths the Mythbusters were going to test in this show,  one of them  attracted my attention a lot, and it was:Will a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building kill a person or penetrate the ground?This myth originated in the "boom" of the constructions of the skyscrapers in New York in 20s and 30s .The nature of the myth is that as Empire State Building  is so high, a penny dropped from its top will go so fast that can break someone's skull, or even can  penetrete the surface back on the ground.

First the Mythbusters calculated what is the maximum speed of a falling penny from  top of a building.After that they equipped and setted a special pneumatic gun to shoot coins with the speed they've calculated.Later  they made three possible surfaces where the penny can fall and they were:asphalt,concrete and a model of a human head made from ballistic gel.Jamie did the first try by shooting a penny in concrete  from 1 m.After he made the try in the concrete suprisingly there was a little scratch,but it didn't penetrate and this part of the myth was busted.Next Adam putted the model of the head,he shooted and on the head there was only a little scratch but no breaks.As they've seen the results Adam decided to put his hand against the gun.Jamie pulled the trigger and Adam felt only a little bit of pain,there wasn't even blood.Finnally they've concluded that this myth is totally busted.

And once again I realised that all those urban legends are totally fake which are used to scare people,but let's not  throw  coins from high buildings because someone can remain without an eye.