9/11, the sheer scale of the collapse...

[andy at handiwork]

'I heard also that if it rained you were too high to get wet as you were effectively above the clouds.'

You do hear some rum old things. Rain usually comes from altostratus and altocumulus clouds (which are middle level clouds, layers between 6,500-20,000ft), although rain can also come from nimbostratus (below 6,500 bases).
The towers were only 1368 ft high so it would be a very rare day that the rain producing cloud was fully below that level. It is quite possible that ground hogging fog or early morning mist might have been below the top of the towers, but that isn't the same as being above the rain.

[planeterotica]

Best be a bit weary then if walking past the The Shard as i saw a stack of timber hanging from a tower crane on that site looking a bit unstable as i made my way to London Bridge station today, if that hit you on the head it could do you some damage !wink!

[andy at handiwork]

It would of course fall, allowing for wind resistance, at the same speed as Max's stale sandwich. It would be the mass of the plunging timber rather than its velocity that would do the damage.

[max_tranmere]

I remember a few years ago when a piece of metal fell off a plane, many thousands of feet up over Hampstead Heath in London, and the piece of metal (quite small I think) landed on a path. It left quite an imprint I recall. Another plane, that was descending towards Heathrow airport a few years ago, had an Asylum Seeker (who was hiding in the wheel mechanisms) fall out over south-west London. A very sad event as someone obviously died, and I think that left quite an imprint in whatever the person landed on. Coins, stale sandwich's, bits of metal, people - you must keep an eye out for what is going on overhead these days as you walk down the street.

[JamesW]

"Another plane, that was descending towards Heathrow airport a few years ago, had an Asylum Seeker (who was hiding in the wheel mechanisms) fall out over south-west London. A very sad event as someone obviously died, and I think that left quite an imprint in whatever the person landed on."

I think this is the incident you are referring to:

"On 24 December 2000, 16-year-old Maikel Almira and 15-year-old Alberto Rodriguez climbed into the wheel wells of a British Airways Boeing 777 in Havana, Cuba. Almira's body was found in a field five miles from Gatwick airport in England." (from Wikipedia)

[Sam Slater]

Q1: Which has the faster terminal velocity?

a) a stale sandwich tied with a rubber band dropped from 1300ft to sea level.

b) max_tranmere's IQ.


Only kidding, Max, but Jesus Christ you don't half come out with stuff! Through the world and out the other side! !laugh!

[planeterotica]

I enjoy reading the post of Max-Tranmere because even if his facts are sometimes not quite factual others will soon come up with their own interpretations of the facts, you learn fom these post... and i would like to know where OEJ got the idea of throwing a bag of shite off the top of a skyscraper !wink!