Objects fall at a rate of 32/ft/sec^2--what does the ft/squared really mean?

Answer 1

Think of it as (ft per second) per second. It's an acceleration, so it's telling you how much the velocity or speed changes in each second. To find the speed at any moment, assuming you started from rest, it's g*t, where g is 32 ft/s^2 and t is the time it's been falling.

Answer 2

As you might know, the formula is the rate of acceleration due to gravity. Because the object is constantly increasing in speed, you must take into account how long it has been falling. It enables you to calculate the speed of any free falling object at any time "t" by squaring the number of seconds that it has been falling and multiplying by 32 feet. This will hold true only when applied to an object falling in a vacuum where there is no air resistance. When the object is falling through air, it will reach a termal velocity where the rate of acceleration is balanced by the friction of the air and acceleration ceases whereup the object falls at a relatively constant rate. The reason that I use the term "relatively" is because as the density of the air through which the object is falling increases, the terminal velocity becomes less and less. This air friction and its breaking effect is most familiarly seen in a space shuttle returning to earth. It's velocity changes very rapidly due to the air friction and the surface heats up to a glowing point. The terminal velocity becomes slower and slower until the shuttle finally becomes a sort of glider.

Answer 3

That means that each second, the speed will increase by 32 ft/sec, so it is 32 ft/sec for each second.

32 ft/sec after 1 full second (assuming speed was 0 at time zero)
64 ft/sec at the end of the 2nd second
96 ft/sec after 3 seconds

and so on.

Answer 4

in every second the velocity will increase by 32 ft/sec
after 1 sec vel=32 ft/sec
after 2 second=64'/sec
after 3 sec 96'/sec and so on

Answer 5

i always thought that the gravitational acceleration on Earth was 9.81 m/s^2... am i wrong on this??

anyway, the formula to find this out is A=g*t where A is the answer, g is gravitational acceleration, in this case 32 ft/second^2 and t is the time it's falling

Answer 6

Objects ACCELERATE, when they fall at 32ft/s^2. This means that every second they are going 32ft/s faster than they were going the last second. That is until wind resistance becomes too great and the forces balance each other out. Anytime you see distance/time^2 that is an acceleration, not a velocity (speed).

Answer 7

As has been mentioned, it's really ft/sec / sec. saying "ft/sec squared" is just a shorthand; "seconds squared" has no real meaning.

Answer 8

It is the unit for acceleration or hove quickly something is speeding up (positive acceleration) or slowing down (negative acclerartion.

This is basically gotten by taking a speed (feet per second) and dividing by time (second).

Answer 9

where did you get ft/squared? Is that in some other equation?