does gravity act more on an object with a higer mass as opposed to an object with less mass?

Question

if u have a brick and a basketball (and the brick has a higer mass), and u drop both of these objects at the same time from the same height, which object hits the ground first..the brick or the ball.

Answer 1

The real truth is as follows................

Gravitational attraction acts to accelerate two objects with mass towards each other. Note that if you drop a brick, it falls towards the earth and the earth falls towards the brick. The earth has a very large mass and the brick a very small mass so the brick moves a lot and the earth not very much.

The force causing acceleration is given by F = G*m1*m2/r^2 where G is a fixed number called the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the objects and r is the distance between them.

Now, this shows that the force acting on a brick falling towards the earth will not be the same as the force on a baseball, however
the acceleration given to an object is a = F/m. This shows that although the force due to gravitational attraction is not the same for all objects falling towards the earth, the acceleration is.That is, assuming that the mass of the earth is m2
a = G*m2/r^2.

So, the acceleration imparted to any object at a given height above the earth will be the same regardless of the mass of the object.

Answer 2

In its basic form, the force of gravity is called weight. So, you answer your own question. Does a football player with more mass weigh more than a cheerleader with less mass? Or, to use your example, does a brick weigh more than a basketball? (You don't have to drop anything to answer your own question.)

As to dropping two somethings to test the force of gravity. That is much trickier and its results will not answer your question. (You've already done that above.) There are two major reasons that dropping two somethings from the same height will not give you the answer you are looking for.

First, hitting the ground sooner or later has nothing to do with the force of gravity, which is weight. Both dropped objects will hit the ground at the same time, but if and only if dropped in a vacuum. The reason for this simultaneous impact is because the acceleration under gravity is a constant 32 ft per sec sec (or thereabouts) on Earth's surface. That is, both objects will accelerate at the same rate after you let go. And they will reach the same velocity upon impact if released in a vacuum, which brings us to the second reason your dropping experiement will not answer your question.

Second, unless you have a perfect vacuum to drop your two somethings in, there will be drag on them. The drag comes from the air as the falling objects speed towards the ground. And that drag will be different according to the shape of those objects. The basketball, for example, has a way bigger cross sectional area than that brick. It is not as streamline as the brick. So drag forces on the basketball will be greater than on the brick (at least initially). These drag forces act against the weight; so they have the net effect of making the falling object seem lighter...less weighty.

The force of gravity is reduced by drag forces. This virtual weight reduction is why your basketball is likely to hit the ground after your brick when you drop them in air. But because there is no drag in a vacuum to reduce the effective weight, the acceleration for both objects remains about 32 ft per sec sec.

If you are mathematically iinclined, W = mg; where W is the weight, m is the mass, and g is the acceleration due to gravity. In a vacuum, where there is no drag force, if I drop a brick that weighs W and a basketball that weighs W/2, I would have W/m = g = 32 ft per sec sec for the brick. For the Bball, I would have W/2 = (m/2)g for it. And that becomes (W/2)/(m/2) = g = W/m = 32 ft per sec sec. So, in a vacuum, they fall with the same acceleration, 32 ft per sec sec.

In air, the brick weight equation becomes W - f = mg - ma = m(g - a); where the f is the force of drag acting in the opposite direction (the minus) from the weight. Like all forces, we can express f as f = ma; so there is a deceleration effect (-a) from the drag forces. Simlarly, W/2 - F = m/2(g - a') for the Bball that has more drag because its not as streamlined as the brick (F>f). The a' is the deceleration of the basketball and F/(m/2) = a'.

Bottom line, dropping two objects will not answer your question. Simply check out the weights to find out which object gravity is acting on more. W = mg; where g = constant (~32 ft per sec sec on Earth's surface.

Answer 3

Gravity will act upon both masses with the same rate of accelleration. However, as one of the other posters so correctly pointed out, motion through a fluid must also be accounted for. So the actual activity of the objects falling would be accelleration due to gravity minus the resistance of the motion through the air.

In on of the Apollo missions they dropped a hammer and a feather at the same time on the moon. Both fell at the same speed and hit the ground at the same time. On earth, however, the air resistance would cause the feather to fall more slowly.

Between a basketball and a brick, you would have to calculate the area cross section and factor thier shapes into account to determine how they will be affected by air resistance. But unless you drop them from very high up, the difference in accelleration due to air resistance will be too small to really notice.

Answer 4

Gravity acts equally upon all objects. If gravity acted more on objects with higher mass, it would be harder for adults to remain upright than children, and harder for children than babies. Trees wouldn't grow so tall, because gravity would pull at them more as they got larger. What a different world it would be!

Try dropping a penny and a book simultaneously, and you'll observe them hitting the ground at the same time as well.

Answer 5

Gravity affects all objects equally. The acceleration due to gravity 32ft/sec^2 is contant regardless of the mass of the objects.

Answer 6

Gravity acts proportional to the mass. Thus the acceleration given to each mass is the same.

Answer 7

In space ill items fall at the same rate,they would both hit the ground at the same time. All things attract each other in space. if u have 2 satellites in orbit around the earth they will attract each other. I have worked on sat elites that have attracted ionized particles around it till u could not transmit a command to the satelite.

Answer 8

In a vacuum the size and weight makes no difference....all objects fall at the same speed.....In the real world .....falling objects may be affected by aerodynamics...( a feather and a billiard ball will not fall at the same speed) BUT if the objects are similar....such as a bowling ball and a basket ball will fall at the same speed

Answer 9

In a vacum yes they will. Here on Earth no because of drag in the air.

Answer 10

all particles of mass coalesce and increase their distance to one another equally and thus density is the measure of effect