tonne of feathers or tonne of bricks??

[spunkypumpkn]

Right! Here is the question. Husband and I are argueing RIGHT NOW regarding what you'd prefer to land on your head? Is it a tonne of feathers or a tonne of bricks?
I say they're the same! He says he'd prefer the feathers? DICK! Answers now please. ASAP. Settle the argument.
Jo

[nucleardream]

Assuming this free fall takes place here on Earth, I'd take the feathers over the bricks. What accelerates more when dropped from a rooftop - an ounce of feather or an ounce of brick?

[spunkypumpkn]

But they weigh the same

[nucleardream]

But the masses are different, right? It's like the analogy of dropping a penny and a feather in a vacuum tight chamber - they'll fall at the same speed. But drop them outside of a vacuum, and the feather gets caught up by air resistence. So to generalize up a bit to a tonne would be the same thing - the feathers, even though weighing the same as bricks, do not fall with as much velocity as the brick. The brick is not as effected by the elements as the feather.

[bernardo]

The feathers landing on your head would only do the same amount of damage as the bricks if they were (a) stuck or bound together to stop them fluffing all over the place individually (b) bound together tightly to prevent them being flexible.

[nucleardream]

disproving the myth:

http://www.jimcarson.com/a/2004/01/monday_morn ing.shtml

[THECORBYLOON]

Instead of bricks and feathers it may be easier to experiment wi a bag of sugar. If a sealed bag is dropped on someone's head fae 20 foot say, it will hurt. Try it again at the same height but this time open the bag and pour out the sugar. The same amount hits them but it'll not hurt.

[ugly_bob]

although the masses are identical (1 tonne), bricks are hard and hurt.
It all depends on how they are arranged.
If you think of a 1kilo brick, it's gonna be quite small, and the mass concentrated, while 1kg of feathers would be huge, and you wouldn't really feel it much.

[Nel1]

After a demo,I was almost convinced that I could jump off the Empie State and actually rise with the air currents, untilI realized that Superman was just pullung my leg !

[rojash]

And there's nothing worse than having your leg pullunged...

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, i would prefer a ton of women landing on me

[sponsmith]

Bricks you'd die, feathers you probably wouldn't even be injured. Its not rocket science is it?

[funnymunn]

It depends on the density of the object. If the feathers would fall without compression there would be a greater area and therefore the pressure per square inch would be less. if the bricks were to fall the density would be larger and so the pressure per inch would be considerably larger and therefore would probably kill you. let alone the aerodynamics. Therefore in conclusion the tonne of bricks would do more damage but i would not like to be under either.