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This isn’t surprising - there was a wired story about phones surviving from planes back in 2011 (1) The gist is that it’s a light object and due to that + broa
by xivzgrev 3y ago
This isn’t surprising - there was a wired story about phones surviving from planes back in 2011 (1)
The gist is that it’s a light object and due to that + broad shape, its terminal velocity is not very high. Coupled that with the mass and there’s not a lot of force on landing. Of course the phone itself is fragile so it might not take a lot of force to break. Still, as long as it lands on something soft it might be ok, as we’ve seen!
(1) https://www.wired.com/2011/04/what-is-the-terminal-velocity-of-an-iphone/ https://www.wired.com/2011/04/what-is-the-terminal-velocity-...
- mrandish 3y agoYes, that and it also had a case and screen protector on it. Plus it landed on grass/dirt vs asphalt.
- HenryBemis 3y agoIt landed on grass/dirt. On the photos on Twitter there seems to be some thick vegetation. Seeing the drops on the screen, if it has rained, then it would make the ground even softer. If it would have landed on the asphalt, concrete, marble it would have looked very different!
- tetha 3y agoVegetation can also help to break velocity. People fell out of planes and survived by falling into trees and snow underneath. The smaller branches of the trees very much acted like a crumple zone on a car - giving way and breaking, but taking away little chunks of energy everytime.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 3y ago> the phone itself is fragile Modern electronics are quite the opposite of fragile, I'd say.
- bmitc 3y agoIt's not a huge leap of faith to assume they mean the phone as in the thing covered in glass and fragile touchscreen.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 3y agoEven the screen with its tempered glass isn't as fragile as it might look.
- ponector 3y agoIf it wasn't fragile - people would not buy cases and protective glass for their phone. Old plastic phones were indestructible. I still have somewhere nokia 3310. It just refuses to die, unlike many smartphones I had.
- chmod775 3y ago> If it wasn't fragile - people would not buy cases and protective glass for their phone. Well for my money I think they're mostly nonsense. I never use them and despite living in my pockets for years, my phone aren't scratched up. Cases are annoying and unwieldy, making it more likely I would drop my phone, and screen protectors make the screen look worse - which I think is what they're supposed to prevent? I often go 5+ years with the same phone, so it's not like I write them off any faster. My S2 and S5 both lasted for ages, and they both still work perfectly fine - the only issue is that software "outgrew" them.
- manderley 3y agoThey're very obviously not nonsense, look at all the shattered screens on phones around out. And there's absolutely 0 chance your screen doesn't have a ton of microscratches.
- astrange 3y agoModern phones aren't fragile but they are slippery, and it's still annoying to drop them especially if it can go down a grate or something. So a case prevents that.
- paulddraper 3y agoThen why does my phone break when I drop it?
- NolF 3y agoBecause there isn't much difference in the force between a 1m and a 8000m drop due to the above. So it really comes down to case, angle, and material onto which it was dropped with corners being more vulnerable.
- hhsectech 3y agoThere is. Dropping your phone follows a curve, it falling from 16,000ft it does not. There are more forces at play when you fumble your phone. They aren't necessarily stronger forces though...just more of them. Trajectory and spinning add different forces on top of gravity. There is also the catch attempt that invariably forces the phone down harder and changes the trajectory.
- byhemechi 3y agobecause you’re dropping it on tiles or pavement which are a lot less squishy than the grass it landed on
- saiya-jin 3y agoNo protection? I drop mine from time to time and never experienced any damage
- mths 3y agoI drop my iPhone 12 mini on the daily onto marble floor, asphalt and concrete .. sometimes it flings out of my hands with an arc to it. Slippery little thing, it is. Only the edges are a bit scratched up.
- mcny 3y agoI am pretty sure ALL phones that are on sale today have better glass than my Nexus 4 which had a beautiful glass panel on its back. Gorgeous but not strong at all. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/LG_Nexus_4_back_glass.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/LG_Nexus...
- jack_riminton 3y agoWell, it is quite surprising
- paxys 3y agoWhere it lands is the biggest factor. A phone will almost never break if it falls on soft grass or mud. And no phone is surviving a high velocity drop onto concrete. Angle of fall is another big one. From what I've seen phones are generally fine if they fall face up or down, but even a slight bump on the edges is enough to crack the glass.
- michaelcampbell 3y agoBy the looks of the tweet, high possibility of some shrubs slowing it down and absorbing some energy before it came to a stop?