Everybody knows that if you drop something off a tall building, it will accelerate at a rate of 9.81 m/s². But that's in a vacuum. So, pennies aren't really that worrisome.

Pennies are flat, so they experience a lot of air resistance, and they are light, so it doesn't take much drag to counteract their weight. Thus, if hurled off a skyscraper, pennies achieve their terminal velocity after only about 50 feet (15 meters) of descent. After that point, they flutter to the ground at a measly 25 mph (40 kph), Bloomfield said.

See? Nothing to worry about. Pens, on the other hand...deadly killers.

If someone nonchalantly tossed one of those off the top of the Empire State Building, it could kill. Depending on their design, pens will either spin and flutter, or shoot down like an arrow. In the latter case, "it might well come down at 200 mph," Bloomfield said. "When it hits, it will hit a small area with a lot of momentum. It will chip the sidewalk. It could punch into a wooden board. You wouldn't want it to hit your head."

Hrm....what if the penny falls with it's edge leading instead of flat? That's alot less surface area for drag to affect, but the mass of the penny stays the same, which should mean terminal velocity could be alot greater...

How about we just don't throw shit off buildings? How about that?