Science Question?

Question

If there were no air to cause air resistance, which would fall faster when you drop it - a feather or a bowling ball?

Answer 1

They fall at the same rate. v = at. a = g in this case. There is no variable there for the weight.

Galileo said this was true, although he did not, as some believe, drop things off some tower in Italy to prove it.

Neil Armstrong, however, did drop a feather and a hammer on the Moon, and they both fell at the same rate.

Answer 2

Actually, people forget that gravity is a attractive force possessed by *all* matter.

If you did an *eyeball* test, it would appear *as if* the bowling ball and the feather fell at the same rate. In reality, the bowling ball *is* faster, just as you would suspect!

Why? Because the bowling ball and the feather *also* have gravity, relative to their mass, *which pulls on the earth*. Thus, although the difference would be miniscule, it *is* calculable. If a bowling ball and a feather were dropped from the same height in a vacuum, the bowling ball would strike the earth in a shorter time than the feather.

A similar reaction explains why jumping on the same spot over and over (or millions of people at one time) does not move the earth out of its orbit.

Jim

Answer 3

They would both land at the same time. This experiment was carried out on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission. See movie on link below

Answer 4

The same. A common classroom toy is an evacuated tube with a feather and a penny in it. You can flip it over and confirm that yes, the feather and the penny fall together.

Answer 5

They would hit the ground at the same time.

Answer 6

Even without air, you are forgetting gravity.

Answer 7

they would both fall at the same speed.