Have you ever opened a coconut? It can be quite an adventure if you lack the requisite tools and experience. My parents had a coconut, and after drilling a hole in it to drain out the milk, I took it outside to cast it into the air so it would break open upon impacting our concrete patio. At least that's what I was hoping for.
As the coconut hurled through the air, rising higher and higher, I realised that the trajectory upon which I had sent it was ill-considered. I remembered (after releasing the projectile) that objects thrown follow a more or less parabolic path under the influence of gravity, and considering the upward path of the coconut, my eyes rapidly completed the parabola, and I realised what I had done by launching it. My parent's glass topped patio table stood directly between the coconut and the patio beneath the table.
Naturally, the coconut continued on its course, regardless of the glass table top between it and the patio. The glass shattered, and the projectile passed through to the patio. As I surveyed the scene, I realized that (1) I now owe my parents a new table, (2) there is broken glass covering the patio chairs and the patio which will need to be swept up, (3) if the coconut had broken open it would be mixed amoung the shards of glass, and (4) the coconut had not broken open.
After checking the outside of the coconut for glass, I took it over and threw it downward onto the sidewalk, and there it broke open, though not into as many pieces as the table-top on the patio... and after all that, the coconut didn't even taste that great.
If I had a digital camera I'd have posted a picture.