I just wanted to let you know that this moment of brilliance did not go unnoticed. If the world was a fair and just place, yours would have been the last post to the thread. Bravo!
You could if you were prepared.
Batman could drop a basketball off the Empire State Building and have it hit the ground? He really is prepared!
What if Batman and Superman got in a fight about who could throw a basketball off the Empire State Building? The twist–what if the ball were made of Kryptonite?!?
You guys are forgetting about the Chuck Norris factor.
Could Chuck chuck-it? Would the tiered terrace tumble from his terrific toss?
Man, I gots to know!!
If Chuck Norris was standing on the sidewalk at the bottom, the basketball would return to a greater height than it started from.
(And further kudos to sinjin for that one!)
On the grounds of Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, there was, and may still be, a bronze sculputure of a basketball at maximum deformation when hitting pavement after being dropped from 10,000 feet.
Tried to find a picture on web. Perhaps someone with more google-fu could try.
Here is is:
Why not try the Sears Tower in Chicago? It’s not tiered, near as I can tell from photos of it.
Oh…so…what! Now we have to get into a friggin car and drive to friggin Chicago?
grumble grumble… 
A basketball I doubt, but you could probably chuck a baseball far enough to get over those… what do you call it… tiers?
Has anyone noticed that a basketball is made for bouncing, therefore it should bounce, and although the tiers may be impossible to miss, the ball will bounce from one tier to another and after clearing the last tier it will accelerate to the estimated terminal velocity, right?
King Kong didn’t bounce. Except off the tiers of course of course. But then again an ape isn’t a horse, however a horse is a horse of course of course.
Unless it’s Mr. Ed. Then it’s a zebra.
The Sears Tower is definitely tiered, perhaps you are thinking of the Hancock building.
If you set the ball to roll of the slope on the Hancock, would it still reach terminal velocity? Would it stay on the surface or bounce off?
I prefer my Batman prepared with fava beans and a nice Chianti.
No. It’s tiers all the way down.
Wow, how did the basketball turn white? Was that from the heat during reentry?
Nope, only a portion of gravity goes into accelerating the ball.
I’d imagine that the Hancock building has windows and such that protrude a bit. Once the ball hits one of those it will start bouncing a bit.