That'd be a fun experiment, strapping a bag of money to a crash test dummy and doing some terminal velocity tests...

I've mentioned this before, but if he was a no pull, and the money was with him you would think the money would have shifted dramatically once he hit the ground, especially if he landed on the bag?

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A 20 pound object falls 100 feet, how many foot pounds are generated at impact?

solving h = 16t²,
100/16 = t²
t = 10/4 = 2.5 s
so the object takes 2.5 seconds to fall, accelerating at 32 ft/sec²
and so its terminal velocity is 32(2.5) = 80 ft/sec
and its kinetic energy at that point is
E = ½mv²
E = ½•20•80²
E = 64,000 lbs ft²/sec²
and then divide by the 32 ft/sec² gravitational constant to get
E = 2000 ft-lbs

Using Shutter's equation above but assuming that the speed at impact is 180+ MPH (15,840 ft/sec), the final value for E is E=78,408,000 ft-lb.  A noticeable difference.  As a no-pull, Cooper's terminal speed at impact would also be the same as the money bag (assuming it is tied to Cooper) and Cooper would make a hole.

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You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

A 20 pound object falls 100 feet, how many foot pounds are generated at impact?

solving h = 16t²,
100/16 = t²
t = 10/4 = 2.5 s
so the object takes 2.5 seconds to fall, accelerating at 32 ft/sec²
and so its terminal velocity is 32(2.5) = 80 ft/sec
and its kinetic energy at that point is
E = ½mv²
E = ½•20•80²
E = 64,000 lbs ft²/sec²
and then divide by the 32 ft/sec² gravitational constant to get
E = 2000 ft-lbs

Using Shutter's equation above but assuming that the speed at impact is 180+ MPH (15,840 ft/sec), the final value for E is E=78,408,000 ft-lb.  A noticeable difference.  As a no-pull, Cooper's terminal speed at impact would also be the same as the money bag (assuming it is tied to Cooper) and Cooper would make a hole.

I think Tom checked his bills for signs of impact (compression) and found no evidence of same.

As I see this, water pressure is not the only potential cause of rotation. Other forces could have caused the same effect. In fact, perhaps other bills would show different patterns of rotation for their adjacent bills? Tom only had three bills - it's hard to generalise from three bills.

Last time I checked 180mph freefall v = 264 feet per second? see attached

If you calculate for kinetic energy you get a similar result to the above ... now to make this meaningful you need to express this in potential work. Would this be enough energy to split the bag? Unlikely. How would a package of money the size and volume of the cooper money be expected to take the shock? How big a puddle, crater, etc would this make in what material? ...... Lots of questions of this nature follow but its always useful to translate calculations into actual work, so people have some practical reference to what the numbers mean ....

The rubber bands weren't holding the money together for all those years, the surrounding sand was.