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iPad Survives Fall From Edge of Space in Jaw-Dropping Video
- mikiem 15y agoHmm... Mine fell one foot and was ruined.
- baby 15y agoI'm so skeptical about this. Seems like the fall wasn't really that fast.
- gizmo 15y agoAn 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 15y agoI do not really care about the case or the iPad, but the footage is just stunning and worth your time.
- ward 15y agoI 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 15y agoI haven't edited the title at all, but just used the one from space.com
- ars 15y agoNormally 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
- ward 15y agoNot 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 15y agoPretty 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 http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/termv.html
- ravivyas 15y agoActual headline : iPad Survives Fall From Edge of Space because of an awesome case in Jaw-Dropping Video
- kia 15y agoSeems 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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUEXKapAVcY
- philbarr 15y agoI 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"...
- ars 15y agoNo 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=div5&view=text&node=14:2.0.1.3.15&idno=14#14:2.0.1.3.15.4 http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&rgn...
- bennyboy 15y agoAnd what about the go pro, it survives as well !!!
- pm90 15y agoI've seen this once before on HN, I just don't see how it is relevant (to HN) in either case though