iPad Survives A Free-Fall From The Edge Of Space (Video)

Ipad

The Huffington Post UK   First Posted: 08/01/12 11:38 GMT Updated: 08/01/12 11:46 GMT

In a bid to prove the quality of their product, makers of a protective iPad case have dropped an Apple tablet from the edge of space... and it survived.

G-Form attached the iPad and case -- along with locator devices and cameras -- to a weather balloon which was launched carrying the tech to a height of 100,000ft.

In the resulting video, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X4xNcF6T7Is) the iPad can be seen hanging above the Earth before the balloon bursts, due to the altitude pressure, and the gadget begins a speedy descent.

Footage then shows the iPad crashing back to Earth and landing on a rocky hillside in the Nevada countryside before cutting to the team using tracking devices to locate it.

When they do, the iPad can be seen unscathed and fully functioning, as you would expect given they post the video on YouTube.

However, some critics have suggested the video might be fake and pointed to the edited fall, while MSNBC observed (http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/05/9985606-video-ipad-dropped-over-100000-feet-survives) that the tracking device weights the iPad to ensure it falls cushion down.

And as Dvice points out, it's not only the Extreme Edge case-wearing iPad which survives -- so does the GoPro camera they used to film the stunt.

Before you get any ideas, it's worth noting that on their website, G-Form says: "We're happy that some of our customers' electronics have survived their testing of our Extreme products, but we don't encourage or recommend intentionally dangerous stunts."

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In a bid to prove the quality of their product, makers of a protective iPad case have dropped an Apple tablet from the edge of space... and it survived. G-Form attached the iPad and case -- along w...
In a bid to prove the quality of their product, makers of a protective iPad case have dropped an Apple tablet from the edge of space... and it survived. G-Form attached the iPad and case -- along w...
 
 
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pdferguson
Micro-bios? We don't need no stinkin' micro-bios!
08:23 PM on 01/12/2012
Jeez, I dropped my iPad about 12" onto a floor, and it cracked the screen in half. Still works, though!
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Doug Clement
Vote for Chunk
08:16 AM on 01/10/2012
I spaced out while reading this article.....
08:02 AM on 01/10/2012
Beautiful girl with the most sexy voice in the world.
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Doug Clement
Vote for Chunk
08:17 AM on 01/10/2012
Thanks honey... *wink wink*
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Anybodyseenthepopos
אני כלום בלעדיהם
04:26 PM on 01/09/2012
And people wonder why this stuff is so expensive....
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
onasphere
Small business owner. Democrat.
04:09 PM on 01/09/2012
And it STILL can't play Flash.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Dnietz
politics is obsolete
04:20 PM on 01/09/2012
good
flash sux
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
onasphere
Small business owner. Democrat.
04:38 PM on 01/09/2012
What? I didn't hear you. I was watching a Flash video.
04:08 PM on 01/09/2012
I think that is a testament to the build quality of the ipad, not necessarily the case.
04:29 PM on 01/09/2012
I think you have that backwards.
05:45 PM on 01/09/2012
A case like that really doesn't do that much at a speed like that.
03:58 PM on 01/09/2012
That's gotta be illegal to dropshitfromspace. Right?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Dnietz
politics is obsolete
04:22 PM on 01/09/2012
Why do you assume that?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
anthonyparker80
03:57 PM on 01/09/2012
Wasn't a free fall as the balloon would have provided drag to slow it down. Take it to 100,000 feet and drop it WITHOUT the balloon. Any pieces left over would have been in a nice crater.
iridium species
Jamba Island
04:17 PM on 01/09/2012
yeah drop yourself from 100,000 feet using only a balloon for 'drag'
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ppenguinator
Life's too imprtant to be taken seriously.
11:15 PM on 01/09/2012
I suspect he weighs a bit more than an ipad.
03:55 PM on 01/09/2012
This video shows why we as a country will have to subsidize the airline industry. At ground level the sky appears to be clear with contrails. At 100,000 feet a haze appears. The effect on the weather is that on average the temperature is 10 degrees F cooler highs and 10 degrees F warmer lows. Since the 1960's the sunlight reaching the ground has diminished by 30%. Take away the jet exhaust and global warming happens in about 4 days.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
blumuze
Deja vu is a slow mind catching up with itself
03:35 PM on 01/09/2012
Next: A loaded diaper.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
dejapooh
Big Business is a Special Interest
07:24 PM on 01/10/2012
HA
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Terrence0258
Bane Capital - America's Reckoning
03:19 PM on 01/09/2012
And that is how iCloud was invented.
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BookKeepersSon
Don't take me alive
03:32 PM on 01/09/2012
Clever.
03:19 PM on 01/09/2012
Trailing a tail of shredded balloon and being a big flat surface would have slowed it down a lot. As for the cameras surviving (which the GoPro Hero probably did), we do not know if they did or not. Only the SD memory card with the video data on it had to survive for us to be able to view the trip.
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Exfl
A centrist until the center moved.
03:07 PM on 01/09/2012
Somebody good at physics tell me how long it takes to reach its maximum velocity. Any distance beyond that is irrelevant in that its speed will be the same when it hits the ground.
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helioszephyr
What do you mean by "micro"?!
03:41 PM on 01/09/2012
you're correct. Dropping it from the edge of space or from about 1.5 miles is about the same in therms of velocity when impact occurs. Wind resistance/friction will not allow it to exceed a certain velocity, therefore the velocity does not perpetually increase.

It just sounds more impressive to say "from the edge of space"
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Dnietz
politics is obsolete
04:24 PM on 01/09/2012
Although more time in the harsh part of the atmosphere could potentially be hazardous to the device. But like others have pointed out, that is more credit to the iPad than this case.
04:38 AM on 01/10/2012
The edge of space = 100,000 feet in altitude. If 1 mile = 5,280 feet then the edge of space is 18.9393 miles in altitude. 1.5 miles is only 7920 feet. Terminal Velocity is 54m/s^2
04:48 PM on 01/09/2012
Its called terminal velocity... does not make any difference past 1.5 Miles... as helioszephyr already stated
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Exfl
A centrist until the center moved.
11:30 PM on 01/09/2012
Thanks.
04:13 PM on 01/10/2012
You forgot one very important thing. In space there is no air therefor there can not be wind resistance. At sea level there is 14.7 psi of air pressure. Any higher than approximately 10,000 feet, the air pressure drops so low that there is not even enough oxygen to breathe. The iPad was going a massive amount faster than the terminal velocity that happens at only something like 500 feet.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
nherent
Subversivist.
03:04 PM on 01/09/2012
I'm amazed that even the camera survived.
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Enea
Reason above all else.
03:02 PM on 01/09/2012
Dropping it from your kitchen table? Shattered screen.
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LiberalJo
"Well behaved women rarely make history"
03:30 PM on 01/09/2012
They're testing the case... Not the actual iPad.
03:59 PM on 01/09/2012
LOL. Exactly.