Things fall at the same speed?

Question

I read that if you drop a coin and an elephant from the same height that they will hit the ground at the same time, all items will fall at the same speed no matter on the weight.
well i dropped a coin and a feather off my balcony, and the feather landed ages after the coin, so surely the people who discovered this are wrong?
i want to try with an elephant and a coin to see, but i dont have an elephant and that would be cruel just to throw one of a balcony.
so what other items different in mass and size does this work with, and how can they say it applies to all items when it clearly doesnt!
Think i have to much time on my hands, lol.

Answer 1

Obviously since gravitational mass and inertial mass are equal, all objects would fall with the same acceleration and reach the same speed in the same time in a vacuum.
The rate at which an object falls in a resisting medium depends on its surface area compared to its mass. So....
You could try scrunching up your feather..reducing surface area
Or..Dropping two objects of the same density but different mass..large coin/v small coin (the large coin wins because the surface area/mass ratio is smaller.
On the elephant/balcony scenario..fit your pachyderm with springs or a bunjee rope, and shout 'lookout below!'- sounds safe and sensible enough to me...

Answer 2

The reason your feather hit later than the coin is because it was slowed by air resistance. A simple way to demonstrate this would be to use a book instead of a coin. Drop the book and the feather side by side, and see which hits the ground first. Then place the feather on top of the bok (so it won't experience any air resistance) and then drop them and see if the feather falls slower.

Answer 3

yes things fall at the same speed. They fall at the speed of 9.8 meters/sec, which is the force of gravity pulling down on the object. The reason that the feather and the coin landed at different times is that the feather would fall at the same speed if there was no wind risistance. They attempted this in a vacume seeled room, and the feather dropped at the same speed as a bowling ball.

Answer 4

Whatever you read was wrong, the weight is what counts.

Astronauts carried out these experiments on the moon and proved Galileo right. A kilo of feathers and a kilo of iron will fall at the same speed, (approx 9metres per second/per second as a rough acceleration rate.), until they hit the ground, kinetic energy stored in the iron will do more damage to the ground than kinetic energy stored in the feathers, unless you can find a one kilo feather that is

Answer 5

Try the elephant and feather experiment in a vacuum and it will work. The elephant won't like it much, though.

Answer 6

http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/feather.avi

This is a video of Apollo 15 Astronaut David Scott performing this experiment on the surface of the moon.

In vacuum, it works.

Answer 7

It does --- you just missed one tiny item.... they all fall at the same rate IN A VACUUM. I.E., WITH NO WIND RESISTANCE.

Answer 8

Its only true in a vacuum.

Answer 9

NED FLANDERS IS A HUCKERLEYDUCKERLEYHOWDYDIDDLEY
DOOO TYPE OF GUY. YEAH!