Which will reach the moon sooner?

Question

You have a 20 pound block of steel. You also have a 1 pound block of foam with the same size and shape as the steel. You drop them both from 20,000 feet above the moon's surface. They are in the vacuum of space so there is no atmospheric resistance. Which will reach the surface of the moon first, the steel or the foam?

Answer 1

since the acceleration due to the moon, is fixed, both objects will tend to accelerate equally, hence if realeased at the same time will arrive at the same time as well....

this would also be true near earth if air resistance would be removed. in a vacuum, means no air resistance to slow the motion of objects.

in earth, both objects would be acted on by the same acceleration. just like Galileos experiment.....

Answer 2

If the moon was the only object in space, there would definitely be no orbiting, unless you were to give them an initial velocity with some tangental component.

But, in all reality, the moon is orbiting the earth, so we have a much more complicated problem. Who knows what would happen exactly....but physics says that they would do the EXACT same thing, whatever it was. Small (compared to a planet or moon) falling objects in a vacuum are not dependant upon mass, shape, or size.

Answer 3

The 1 pound block, because it will be more effectively assisted by the solar wind coming from the sun, pushing it towards to the surface of the moon first, even if only by micrometers. Of course, both will gravitationally fall towards the moon, but the foam will get this extra boost because it's lighter, and therefore have slightly greater acceleration.

Answer 4

the steel will reach first as the moon is not the vacuum of space but actually has gravity.

being that steel is heavier than foam and its mass is much greater, it will fall faster and reach the moon surface sooner.

if this was a true vacuum, then yes both would reach at the same speed but your question is flawed as the moon does have gravity and is not a vacuum.

Answer 5

They will both hit at the same time. Astronaut Dave Scott demonstrated this on a smaller scale with a hammer and a feather during the Apollo 15 moonwalk.

(And yes I am assuming that they are not in orbit and have the same initial velocity relative to the moon. Am also neglecting solar wind and perturbations due to sun's and earth's gravity)

Answer 6

They would have to be pushed or thrusted instead of dropped. There is some sort of gravitational pull on the moon according to the footage from the day Armstrong landed. This would indicate to me that the steel would get there sooner.

Answer 7

Foam compresses where there is no oxygen so the weight, mass and density of the steel block alone will likely move faster in one direction or another.

Answer 8

They will reach the ground at the same time because the masses of both objects are uniformily distributed and there is no air to create resistence.

Answer 9

Davinci proved they will reach the surface at the same time about 400 years ago.

Answer 10

Kind of a trick question, neither would ever drop.

They will be go around the orbit due to the moons gravity.