

iPad Survives Fall From Edge of Space in Jaw-Dropping Video - sasvari
http://www.space.com/14172-ipad-survives-fall-edge-space-video.html

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harpastum
Pretty awesome video, but it looks like they cheated a little bit by weighing
the back of the device, so that it would land on its back rather than screen.

An iPad 2 weighs 1.33 lbs, and has ~0.5 sq. ft of surface area when flat,
which according to this NASA applet [1] means its terminal velocity is 12.2
mph (17.8 ft/sec).

A drop at 12 miles per hour onto its back is probably not enough to destroy
the iPad whether or not there is a case on it.

[1] <http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/termv.html>

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philbarr
I wonder what kind of permissions they had to obtain in order to do that?
Surely they'd need to worry about air traffic and the chance of it landing on
someone or someone else's property (however unlikely). Or maybe they went to
some privately owned bit of desert to do it? I wonder how much that costs?

Also - it kind of reminds me of a geek-version of the "bow and arrow" game
from the film "Grown Ups"...

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ars
No permission is required, they just need to notify their local FAA facility
of the launch.

They need to stay away from airports and populated areas, also launch during
the day and when there isn't cloud cover that would hide the balloon.

See here: [http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-
idx?c=ecfr&rgn...](http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-
idx?c=ecfr&rgn=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.3.15&idno=14#14:2.0.1.3.15.4)

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ward
I don't know why you didn't mention it in the title, but I would think it's
pretty relevant that it wasn't _just_ an iPad. It was " _An iPad with a G-Form
Extreme Edge case_ ". Doubt the survival is something the iPad should be
credited for.

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sasvari
I haven't edited the title at all, but just used the one from space.com

~~~
ward
Not accusing you of doing so, it just struck me as relevant. I didn't notice
before it was just an exact copy of their title. I would argue that in this
case a title edit could've been better.

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kia
Seems like the idea was to make the iPad rotate like falling maple seeds [1]
so it would considerably slow down.

[1] - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUEXKapAVcY>

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ravivyas
Actual headline : iPad Survives Fall From Edge of Space because of an awesome
case in Jaw-Dropping Video

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St-Clock
I do not really care about the case or the iPad, but the footage is just
stunning and worth your time.

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pm90
I've seen this once before on HN, I just don't see how it is relevant (to HN)
in either case though

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baby
I'm so skeptical about this. Seems like the fall wasn't really that fast.

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gizmo
An iPad is really light so it has a very low terminal velocity (it is bulky),
so I don't think they cheated. They did speed up the video in places though.

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bennyboy
And what about the go pro, it survives as well !!!

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mikiem
Hmm... Mine fell one foot and was ruined.

