According to myth, if you dropped a coin from a skyscraper as high as the Ponte City skyscraper, it could kill someone below. “Myth busters”, a TV show which airs on The Science Channel re-enacted the scenario to test this myth and found it to be incorrect – luckily, a coin tossed from a tall skyscraper cannot kill you.

Fortunately, the myth that claims that a coin dropped from a skyscraper as high as the Ponte City skyscraper could kill someone below, is totally incorrect!

According to physicist Jon Butterworth of University College London, a coin dropped from a skyscraper is not lethal, and it couldn’t even burn flesh.

Here’s the science – all dropped objects experience constant acceleration and their speed constantly increases at a rate of just under 10 meters per second.

At the same time, air resistance also increases as an object falls. When air resistance matches gravity, the object achieves what is called “terminal velocity” (meaning maximum speed), and no longer accelerates.

With the average weight about 9g, a R5 coin would in theory reach terminal velocity at just over 22km an hour, hardly fast enough to kill you. So we can rest assured that a coin tossed from a tall skyscraper cannot do us any harm!