is there acceleration acting on a falling horizontal object and does this change?

Answer 1

How can a horizontal object be falling?

Answer 2

It depends on who you ask. If you go with the Newtonian mechanics model of gravity, then yes and yes.

There is acceleration on every object with mass that is not at rest. (These objects have a net acceleration of 0.) This acceleration changes depending on the amount of mass the object has, the amount of mass other objects in the vicinity have, and the distance between them.

Objects near earth are often modeled using a fixed acceleration. This is because this is a really good approximation and a lot easier. (9.8 m/s/s if I remember correctly.) But Newton's model of gravity is more complicated.

F=gc*(M1*M2)/(r*r) where gc is the gravitational constant, M1 and M2 are the masses of two of the objects your interested in. (The horizontal object and Earth for example) and r is the distance between them. The acceleration is F divided by the mass you are interested in. Note that it is true that the horizontal object is accelerating to Earth and that the Earth is accelerating towards the falling object, but very very very slowly.

So basically acceleration due to gravity varies with height, but near Earth a constant acceleration is a really good approximation because the Earth is so big that a few feet don't matter.

Also, shape is generally disregarded when calculating acceleration due to gravity.

Answer 3

A falling object will experience the acceleration due to gravity.
If it is also moving horizontally, it can have a constant motion in that plane without acceleration. Because of the vertical motion its path will describe a parabola.

Answer 4

I think you are referring to a vertically falling object??

If you're trying to answer a high school physics question then you say that the object is accelerating due to gravity at 9.8 m/s^2.
Most high school physics problems allow you to ignore the effects of drag and friction, so you can assume constanct acceleration.

If your falling horizontal object is something like a cannon ball you still use a = 9.8 m/s^2.

Answer 5

how does an object falls horizontally?
if u meant vertically, then yes. an object falling vertically do have acceleration. the acceleration does change(decrease) if the object is falling in a medium, such as air. but in vacuum, the object will have a constant acceleration.

Answer 6

yea. its -9.8 m/s or -10m/s