Galleleo said objects of any weight fall at the same rate, but why would a heavier person go down a slide 1st?

Question

before a lighter person.

Answer 1

because when you reach the bottom you stop abruptly
if you were to fall down, the bigger person would land on you
in a perfect world, you would not fall, but hop up and get out of the way

Answer 2

Wow....what a bunch of bad answers.
1. Frictional force is independent of area. It is a function solely of the normal force between the two objects and the coefficient of friction between those two objects. The person who said their high school teacher told him/her it had to do with area has a woefully uneducated teacher. There is such a thing as rolling resistance (for example with tires) that is a function of area. But the question did not state the body was "rolling".
2. The question assumes a "fact" that is not proven, i.e. a heavier person goes down a slide faster than a lighter person. What is the basis of this "fact"? Observation, belief, intuition? When asking questions it is important to frame it in a manner that is logical and defendable.
3. A "free-body" diagram which identifies and contrasts the various forces for both a free-falling body and one sliding down an incline will provide the basis for the answer to this question. Two forces acting on the free falling body are the force of gravity and air resistance. Are there others? Ask yourself what forces are acting on a body sliding down the incline. Same or different?

Questions and answers forums are great learning tools...but use them to learn...not just a way to be spoon fed an answer.

A Frustrated former teacher...

Answer 3

friction is not an accurate answer because the friction forces is not depend to the weight, but it depends to the area of the two objects which is frictioning on one surface after another. maybe the heavier person has more area on the slide but it may cause him sliding slower(because when the area increases, the friction forces may increases).

Galileo was correct because the weight may not influence the acceleration of an object because every object would fall down in the same gravity acceleration, 10ms2 at any different weight at the free fall situation(vacuum)

in this case, the sliding board is placed in sloping position. so, there'll be the `X force' and `Y force'.meanwhile the angle of the sloping board may also influence the velocity of the person.

Answer 4

Actually the reverse of the previous answer. The amount of friction for people on a slide is about the same even though the fat person will be somewhat higher. The force pulling the fat person is more per square inch and thus he will move faster. The same kind of thing happens in the Roller Derby which is why there are weight limits.

Answer 5

newtons second law states that the more force there is the farther and faster it will go. or something like that. also, with gravity in mind, gravity pulls the heavier person with more force, even though gravity pulls all objects with the same amount of force. also, combined with sliding friction it makes things easier.


or you could use my friend's logic.... the heavier gets to the bottom first so the lighter one can land on them, and not the other way around.


yeah, theyre both pretty accurare...

Answer 6

Because he was in line first. Also, if the light person went down first and didn't get out of the way, he could be squished.

Answer 7

Could it be the angle of descent as opposed to falling straight down as Galileo theorized?

Answer 8

a straight fall and a perpendicular slide do not have the same theory

Answer 9

the theory is only based on free-falling bodies and assumes vacuum space. so, your example doesn't really fit the theory.

Answer 10

key words in your questions are "fall" and then later "slide"

the answer is friction-fat people have more of it.