Do objects of same size, shape and volume, but different masses fall at the same time from the same height?

Question

If so, why does a feather or a sheet of paper fall slower?

Answer 1

Yes, neglecting air resistance. Just ask Galileo.

[REPOST] Re your additional detail, paper and feathers fall slower because they have high resistance to air. Air itself has mass, and in physics, is considered as a fluid. Just like you feel resistance when you jump in a pool and hit the water, so do very light or low density or aerodynamic objects feel the resistance of the air as they fall. In fact if you were to jump out of an airplane, within a few seconds you will reach a speed such that the resistance of the air will be enough to keep gravity from accelerating you further, somewhere in the range of 120 to 200mph, depending on whether you spread yourself flat out or if you assume a diving position.

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Answer 2

Assuming they also have the same density, then yes they will fall at the same rate in air. In vacuum, all objects will fall at the same rate, irrespective of their mass, size, shape or volume. You can see this by looking at the Newtonian gravitation law F = GMm/r^2. Since F = ma, we have GMm/r^2 = ma, or GM/r^2 = a, the acceleration of the mass m. Note that the magnitude of m has no effect on the equation.
Feathers and sheets of paper fall slower because air resistance decreases their acceleration. The equation for this would not be the simple GMm/r^2 = ma above but would have to add a term for air resistance, which may be GMm/r^2 + mk(t)f(v) = dp/dt where f(v) is some (negative) function of velocity and k is some function of the profile the object presents to the fluid. Note that the mass again falls out, but now the dominating factor is k(t)f(v). These equations usually require numerical (computer) integration and in the case of paper and feathers, the cross-section constantly changes. There was actually a nice research paper in Science a while back detailing the analysis of paper falling in relation to catastrophe theory.

Answer 3

It's this simple: In a vacuum, the objects you describe WILL fall at the same rate. The same objects will fall at varying rates if dropped through the air. Why? Because there is a varying amount of air resistance when the objects fall through the atmosphere. The lower the mass of a given one of your objects, the greater the effect of the atmosphere will be.
Note: the observable effect on the rate of fall will be slight
until the mass is minimal. The effect of air resistance will be greater on very light (low mass) objects.

Answer 4

If based upon a "free falling object", everything (on Earth) falls at 32 feet per second per second or 9.8 meters per second per second.

A free-falling object is an object which is falling under the sole influence of gravity. Thus, any object which is moving and being acted upon only by the force of gravity is said to be "in a state of free fall." This definition of free fall leads to two important characteristics about a free-falling object:

-Free-falling objects do not encounter air resistance.
-All free-falling objects (on Earth) accelerate downwards at a rate of approximately 10 m/s/s (to be exact, 9.8 m/s/s).

Answer 5

Yes. Isacc Newton said that no matter the weight or mass, height or volume, each object will fall at the same rate.

Answer 6

The speed they reach depends only on the acceleration due to gravity and how long they have been falling. So if drop height is the same and both start at the same altitude (small gravity effect) they will both reach the ground at same time.

Answer 7

No, the object having greater mass will reach in less time.
As the object having greater mass will have to resist less air resistance while objects ahving greater mass will have to ressist more air resistance.

Answer 8

only in a vacuum where there is no air resistant will they fall at the same rate.because there is no air fiction to slow them down.