iPad Survives Fall From Edge of Space in Jaw-Dropping Video

http://www.space.com/14172-ipad-survives-fall-edge-space-video.html

by sasvari • 15 years ago

13 15 15 years ago

space.com

mikiem• 15 years ago

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

baby• 15 years ago

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

gizmo• 15 years ago

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.

St-Clock• 15 years ago

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

ward2• 15 years ago

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.

sasvari• 15 years ago

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

ars2• 15 years ago

Normally that's the right thing to do, but in this case I think you should edit it.

Perhaps: iPad [with padding] Survives Fall From Edge of Space in Jaw-Dropping Video

ward2• 15 years ago

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.

harpastum• 15 years ago

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

ravivyas• 15 years ago

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

kia• 15 years ago

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

philbarr• 15 years ago

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"...

ars2• 15 years ago

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...

bennyboy• 15 years ago

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

pm90• 15 years ago

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

iPad Survives Fall From Edge of Space in Jaw-Dropping Video

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