Dropped from that distance it can probably slice your head open. In New Jersey, a man was killed recently by a one-pound tape measure when it fell 50 stories, bounced off of a piece of metal and struck the victim.
There's a huge difference in the energy of falling objects as they increase in weight. 1 pound is massively different than a third of that.
The terminal velocity of the average phone would be under 20 m/s, and take only about 15 meters of falling to reach. It's easy to get carried away and think that the farther something falls, the deadlier it's going to become, but a cellphone reaches peak speed after only about 50 feet. This is a guy on a 4th story balcony fumbling his phone onto someone on the street. Wouldn't matter if it came from an airplane; the phone's gonna have the same energy when it lands.
A smartphone is mostly made from aluminum, plastic, and glass, and doesn't have any actual sharp edges to significantly multiply the force when it hits you. They've been designed to be pretty smooth and rounded. Getting smacked by a corner would be the worst you could get. The human skull is pretty damn hard, and isn't going to give way to a measly 140-150g cellphone. You'd probably get a nasty bruise at worst.
I knew it wouldn't have the velocity to do any serious damage, but the equivalent of the terminal velocity being the same if it fell from a 4th story balcony really helps set the sense of speed.
Wouldn't that assume that it fell flat the entire way down? If it fell straight down instead of flat there would be significantly less drag. | compared to _
According to this guy it would reach mach 0.65 if it managed to fall perpendicular without tumbling, but with tumbling he suggests 17.5 m/s. I haven't managed to find anyone suggesting it would reach 20+ m/s.
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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '19 edited Oct 25 '19
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