kingdragonfly: Phone survives fall from plane from 16,000 ft

Phone from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 found near Portland

100ft or 16,000 ft, makes zero difference once it hits terminal velocity

Its hardly streamlined, and it would have tumbled, lowering its terminal velocity

It also apparently went through a bush and hit soft ground.

So lucky, yes, miracle , maybe not so much.

Yet if it fell from my pocket the corner would hit concrete and crack the screen 🙁

Bung:

 

Yet if it fell from my pocket the corner would hit concrete and crack the screen 🙁

 

Have you tried buttering one side of it and/or attaching it to a cat?

You have to do both then it doesn't fit my overall pocket.

Bung:

 

You have to do both then it doesn't fit my overall pocket.

 

If you try buttering a cat your problems will be bigger than that!

sir1963: So lucky, yes, miracle , maybe not so much.

kingdragonfly:[snip] The terminal velocity of a large screen-down iPhone, according to Watts, would be about 30 mph. “The larger the iPhone, the lower the terminal velocity,” 
...
Watts said that when we drop a phone from waist-height, it hits the ground at around 10 mph, while a phone dropped from the top of an airplane probably only reaches 50 mph.
...

So, if you drop a phone from the top of an airplane, it goes faster than terminal velocity? Some strange new physics.

The sheer number of vehicles (Even with trailers) which blast through the Stop Sign at our corner!

The CCC Traffic Engineer said "oh, maybe it should be a Give Way!"

To which I replied "At a Blind T Intersection?"

He replied "Oh, it needs to be a STOP!"

If it WAS policed, over $200k per month in fines! YES it is that bad!

I've only witnessed one T-Boned motorcyclist so far!

The Police aren't interested!

(Been told by other that it is like that "everywhere" if you look!)

There's probably some very big error bars on what terminal velocity for a phone is, depending on the phone, case, orientation, and other factors.

The biggest one is going to be air density. Air is thinner at higher altitudes, so terminal velocity is higher. I couldn't easily find any pretty graphs, but here's a quick one: 

The terminal velocity of a skydiver is sensitive to the density of air, which varies with altitude: at 10,000 m a terminal velocity of 77 m/s is predicted, at 1,000 m only 45 m/s.

RunningMan:

 

kingdragonfly:[snip] The terminal velocity of a large screen-down iPhone, according to Watts, would be about 30 mph. “The larger the iPhone, the lower the terminal velocity,” 
...
Watts said that when we drop a phone from waist-height, it hits the ground at around 10 mph, while a phone dropped from the top of an airplane probably only reaches 50 mph.
...

 

So, if you drop a phone from the top of an airplane, it goes faster than terminal velocity? Some strange new physics.

 

I imagine that's feasible. A phone falling corner-first might only become aerodynamically unstable above 50mph. It would then change to a new stable state of 30mph.

However, if this wasn't a design feature, I guess it would very unlikely. 

kingdragonfly: Washington Post: Here’s how an iPhone survived a 16,000-foot fall from a plane
The iPhone was lying on the ground, in airplane mode, with its battery half full. The screen, fully intact, showed a $70 receipt for two checked bags on Alaska Airlines flight 1282.

Does anyone else see it as a bit too coincidental that the iPhone fell from Alaska Airlines flight 1282, unlocked, and with an email receipt for checked bags on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 on screen at the time of discovery?

Seems to me more likely it's a hoax by someone wanting attention than a real phone surviving a fall.

Kyanar:

 

kingdragonfly: Washington Post: Here’s how an iPhone survived a 16,000-foot fall from a plane
The iPhone was lying on the ground, in airplane mode, with its battery half full. The screen, fully intact, showed a $70 receipt for two checked bags on Alaska Airlines flight 1282.

 

Does anyone else see it as a bit too coincidental that the iPhone fell from Alaska Airlines flight 1282, unlocked, and with an email receipt for checked bags on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 on screen at the time of discovery?

 

Seems to me more likely it's a hoax by someone wanting attention than a real phone surviving a fall.

 

Or just some incompetent disguise-cut'n'paste by the "reporter". I can imagine how "An email receipt for checked bags on Alaska Airlines flight 1282 was on the phone" could become "...on the screen".