An experiment and several experts determine the factor that most influences whether an iPhone breaks when falling from a certain height
At the beginning of this year, many of us were surprised by how the emergency door of a Boeing 737 had detached in mid-flight and, despite everything, the plane had managed to continue normally. In the technological field in general and Apple in particular, the big surprise was seeing that an iPhone 14 Pro flew away with that part of the fuselage. An iPhone that ended up intact Nevertheless.
The fall was about 5,000 meters high. And obviously we all have infinitely minor falls in our minds that have ended with our iPhone destroyed. However, all this has an explanation that It is based on physics and lucksomething that different experts agree on, including a scientist from NASA itself.
What are the differences between a fall from 90 meters and another from 5,000 meters?
The well-known technology journalist Joanna Stern recently published a report in The Wall Street Journal that was really more of an experiment than anything else. And Stern surrounded himself with drone pilots to experiment with dropping different smartphones among which a Samsung Galaxy S23 and an iPhone 14 Pro stood out.
You’re probably wondering why he didn’t choose the Samsung Galaxy S24 and iPhone 15 Pro, which after all are the latest flagships from these manufacturers. Well, the reason is none other than to remember that plane fall that we mentioned at the beginning, given that that was an iPhone 14 Pro and the Samsung counterpart is the S23.
The point is that tried different types of falls with different results. With cases, without cases, from a higher height, from a lower height, against the asphalt, against the grass… In general terms, all of this served to verify that height was not a decisive factor in causing damage to both smartphones.
What is relevant is the surface against which it collides.. This may be very obvious, but not so much the indifference of the height from which it falls, especially when a certain limit is exceeded. Different experts consulted by the journalist referred to this, such as Mark Rober, former NASA mechanical engineer, or Rhett Allain, physics professor at Southesartern University in Louisiana.
From a certain height, the acceleration of a falling object does not increase
As other experts have commented in the past, It doesn’t matter how high they fall: the effect will be the same. What has the most influence is the acceleration taken by the iPhone (or any other smartphone or object), which depends on the time it takes to hit the ground. However, from a certain height of around 90 meters, that acceleration does not increase and it does not matter whether it falls from 100 meters, 1,000 meters or 10,000 meters.
The most determining factor is the surface against which it falls. Here the kinetic energy does its thing and the impact is not the same if it falls on a soft surface like grass or against a hard one like asphalt. In Joanna Stern’s tests it is very clear how against that first surface, the mobiles resist more, regardless of the height.
In the case of that iPhone 14 Pro that was thrown from the plane, it collided precisely with a grass and the determining factor for it to emerge unscathed was luck. This is what Luis Ángel Tejedor, professor of Electronic Engineering at the Complutense University of Madrid, told El País a few months ago. And if it had fallen just a few meters further, it would have hit a road and most likely would have been shattered.
More information | The Wall Street Journal on YouTube
Cover image | Generated with DALL-E 3 and Photoshop
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