How large would a penny get if it was run over by a train, on the tracks?

Question

How large would a penny get if it was run over by a train, on the tracks?

Answer 1

Try it! I did for my sons when they were small. We laughed at the shape it was after. It was flat and about the size of a nickle.

Answer 2

we often did just that when I was a kid, the penny would smash out to about two inches in dia. and very thin.

Answer 3

it gets almost 2 times the size, more like 3 quarters,

Answer 4

Putting anything on train tracks is a violation of federal law.(USA)  It is also trespassing.  But most likely you will not get caught or just get a warning.  Here is a link to wording that the Federal Railroad Administration suggests that states  enact as law.

http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/safety/...

L&N nut

Answer 5

I crunched a penny while switching, and had the engine (200 tons) roll over it several times.  It got to be pretty thin and then didn't flatten out any more, it was roughly oval in shape and 2 inches across.  It didn't get foil-thin, and was too thick to bend.  This was, I think, a new penny, with a zinc core, so it was harder than soft copper alone.  I shall have to try this with an old, all-copper penny.

Rolling over a nail flattens it out to about 1/2 mm and ends up looking like a small dagger, but still too thick to bend in your hands.  Rolling over a seashell does not pulverize it, the wheels just go over it with some breakage.  Rolling over a piece of wire, especially copper wire, flattens nicely.  Anything thicker than, say 1/2 inch, will get more pushed out of the way rather than flattened.

Answer 6

about 1-1.5 inches

Answer 7

About as wide as a nickel, and oblong in shape - shape depends on how perfectly it stayed on the center of track, since the sudden "compression" sort of makes it "squirt out"! used to do this with the old "steam trains" when I was a kid. It is  better when the engine is going at slower speed, -- since they sometimes fly so far off tracks it is hard to find them again - when the train is going fast!   "Run one over" twice and they get as thin a paper (and larger too)!! Also tend to "tear" (or split on edeges) sometimes!

Answer 8

It is hardly ever round, oval shaped and roughly the size of a quarter.

Of course if it were to stay on the rail and not fall off, the wheels would keep flattening and flattening it almost without limits.

Answer 9

as big around as a pancake.  but not as tastey !!!!!