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MIT students drop piano off dorm roof to celebrate drop day

UBC students are also known to put large objects, such as a VW Beetle, in unusual places

Hundreds watched as Massachusetts Institute of Technology students dropped a piano from the roof of a dorm to celebrate the last day to drop classes without it appearing on transcripts.

The broken instrument came crashing down from seven storeys and landing on a baby grand piano with a loud thud.

While students say in the video they were expecting more or a repeated boing or twang sound one may hear in a cartoon, they still thought seeing the piano shatter into pieces was cool.

The tradition began 40 years ago when students in Baker House had an extra piano they wanted removed. So they threw it off the roof one day. The event was observed sporadically until 2006, when it became an official tradition.

MIT students don't have to purchase the pianos, but rather people call them offering their broken instruments.

But a piano isn't the only heavy object these pranksters manage to put in an unusual location. In 2006, an MIT Fire Department truck was placed on the Great Dome and on a separate date they moved a 1.7 ton cannon. In 2003, they placed a replica Wright brothers' plane on the Great Dome and in 1994, they placed an MIT Campus Police car there as well.

But they aren't the only techies having some fun. In 1978, University of British Columbia engineering students stole the Speaker's Chair out of the Victoria Legislature and held it for ransom to be paid to charity. But this was nothing compared to when they hung a Volkswagen Beetle off San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. They've also placed the car in Lost Lagoon and hung it from a clock tower and the Lions Gate Bridge. But, unfortunately for the students, five of them were caught and arrested in 2009, while trying to hang the Beetle off the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge.

As for these MIT students, they probably won't be going to jail anytime soon for the piano drop. Student Michael Plasmeier said it's done safely in coordination with security. As you can see in the video, a perimeter is set up for people to watch from a safe distance.