falling objects?

Question

I'm confused; will two objects which are of different masses fall and hit the ground at the same time, always?

So, any objects which fall from the same height will hit the ground at the same time?

Answer 1

In a vacuum, where there is no resistance, two objects will fall at the same rate. In an atmosphere, the objects are subject to resistance from the surrounding air. In this case, with a one pound ball and a one pound feather (for argument's sake), the ball would hit the ground first because its weight and shape allowed it to better overcome the air resistance.
In a vacuum two objects of different weights will fall at the same speed. Outside a vacuum it's all about defeating resistance.

Answer 2

The argument goes as follows: Assume we have a 10kg ball and a 1kg ball. Let us assume the 10kg ball falls faster than the 1kg ball, since it is heavier. Now, lets tie the two balls together. What will happen then? Will the combined object fall slower, since the 1kg ball will hold back the 10kg ball? Or will the combination fall faster, since it is now an 11kg object? Since both can't happen, the only possibility is that they were falling at the same rate in the first place.

Sounds extremely convincing. But, I think there is a slight fallacy in the argument. It mentions nothing about the nature of the force involved, so it looks like it should work with any kind of force! However, it is not quite true. If we lived on a world where the 'falling' was due to electrical forces, and objects had masses and permanent charges, things would be different. Things with zero charge would not fall no matter what their mass is. In fact, the falling rate would be proportional to q/m, where q is the charge and m is the mass. When you tie two objects, 1 and 2, with charges q1, q2, and m1, m2, the combined object will fall at a rate (q1+q2)/(m1+m2). Assuming q1/m1 < q2/m2, or object 2 falls faster than object one, the combined object will fall at an intermediate rate (this can be shown easily). But, there is another point. The 'weight' of an object is the force acting on it. That is just proportional to q, the charge. Since what matters for the falling rate is q/m, the weight will have no definite relation to rate of fall. In fact, you could have a zero-mass object with charge q, which will fall infinitely fast, or an infinite-mass object with charge q, which will not fall at all, but they will 'weigh' the same! So, in fact, the original argument should be reduced to the following statement, which is more accurate:

If all objects which have equal weight fall at the same rate, then _all_ objects will fall at the same rate, regardless of their weight.

In mathematical terms, this is equivalent to saying that if q1=q2 then m1=m2 or, q/m is the same for all objects, they will all fall at the same rate! All in all, this is pretty hollow an argument.

Going back to the case of gravity.. The gravitational force is



( G is a constant, called constant of gravitation, M is the mass of the attracting body (here, earth), and m1 is the 'gravitational mass' of the object.)

And newton's law of motion is



where m2 is the 'inertial mass' of the object, and a is the acceleration.

Now, solving for acceleration, we find:



Which is proportional to m1/m2, i.e. the gravitational mass divided by the inertial mass. This is our old 'q/m' from the electrical case! Now, if and only if m1/m2 is a constant for all objects, (this constant can be absorbed into G, so the question can be reduced to m1=m2 for all objects) they will all fall at the same rate. If this ratio varies, then we will have no definite relation between rate of fall, and weight.

So, all in all, we are back to square one. Which is just canceling the masses in the equations, thus showing that they must fall at the same rate. The equality of the two masses is a necessity for general relativity, and enters it naturally. Also, the two masses have been found to be equal to extremely good precision experimentally. The correct answer to the question 'why objects with different masses fall at the same rate?' is, 'beacuse the gravitational and inertial masses are equal for all objects.'

Then, why does the argument sound so convincing? Since our daily experience and intuition dictates that things which weigh the same, fall at the same rate. Once we assume that, we have implicitly already assumed that the gravitational mass is equal to the inertial mass. (Wow, what things we do without noticing!). The rest of the argument follows easily and naturally...

Answer 3

they're pulled by the earth's gravity. the heavier object resists more but is pulled more also, the lighter one resists less to the fall, but is pulled less.

the reason you may find this puzzling is that, in our daily lives, most light objects are affected by air resistance, so we usually do not see feathers, or autumn leaves, fall to the ground like stones.

but if we had no atmosphere, we would. Physicists actually have large glass or plastic tubes from which they can pump most of the air out, before letting, say, a ball of lead and a feather fall together from the same height. And yes, the feather, then drops... like a stone.

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Answer 4

I don't know. What's with the back? The Puddy girl's answer is right. But here's a good solution to your confusing problem. Why don't you do an experiment yourself.

Propostion 1) Find yourself a big fat ugly person as a partner.

Proposition 2) Convince that person you'll pay him/her $50,000.00 to do an expriment with you.

Propositon 3) Find a tall building that both of you can jump off from.

As a solution when both off you jump off, you yourself will never hit the ground because some fool will rush over to save your beautiful self first, no matter what. Meanwhile that fat ugly person will be squashed like a giant watermelon falling from the tall building. How's that for an answer? Hehehe......

Answer 5

The falling merchandise might properly be dealt with as having an elliptical orbit with an eccentricity of close to a minimum of one, and a semi-substantial axis of ½ AU. The era for the object might then be P = ?.5³ ; and, because of the fact it is going to easily accomplish 0.5 and orbit, divide by using 2. i'm getting sixty 4.6 days. Edit: That assumption may well be incorrect, %.. what's the fee of a physique in an intensive to a minimum of one eccentricity orbit while at aphelion? The gravitational acceleration between 2 bodies is g = GM/r². GMm/r² is the stress between them. That tension utilized to mass m produces an acceleration of (m) • (GMm/r²) = GM/r² = g. observe the mass cancels out. it truly is why the respond does no longer rely on the mass of the object. .

Answer 6

Depends on what object is heavier. For example a bowling ball will fall much quicker than let's say a basketball because of the weight in the bowling ball. How ever a tennis ball might fall quicker than a baseball.

It is a matter of physics and the theory of gravity. I hope you find the answer you are looking for.

Answer 7

In the absence of air, the answer is yes: two objects of different mass will always fall at the same rate. However, air will slow the fall of any lightweight object. Even dense objects have some interaction with air, which can skew the measurements.

Answer 8

As long as they have the same wind resistance, weigh does not matter. Objects with little to no wind resistance fall at 32 feet per second.

Answer 9

This theory applies is the body is falling under the 'newton's frame of gravity'
but in real world we have no such gravity field.
Here the heavier object will always fall to the ground earlier.

Answer 10

In a vaccuum a feather and a 100lb boulder would hit at the same time. In the real world wind resistance effects things, and slows down objects with large surface area and low mass/momentum.