What affects the speed of dropping objects?

Question

My son is doing a project on dropping objects. He needs to know what affects dropping objects and how.

Answer 1

Cool! The velocity of an object will be affected by its acceleration, time spent falling and air resistance (negligible)

V = Vo + at

Where :
V = velocity
Vo = initial velocity (0 value if measured from drop point)
a = acceleration
t = time

The acceleration of an object falling is the change in velocity over time and is affected by the gravitational pull of the planet (9.81ms-1 on Earth)

The mass of the falling object will not affect the acceleration or velocity, but will determine the force exerted by the object (weight) eg: a lead ball will fall with the same acceleration and velocity as a tennis ball, but will hurt alot more if dropped on your head.
F = ma

As far as air resistance is concerned, Newtons 3rd Law of motion states "for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction", so the force opposing gravity is air resistance.
There was a story about a cat named piper falling from a 32 story building and surviving, while most others falling from 4 stotries perished. Experts concluded the cat reached its terminal velocity, where gravity and air resistance balanced, and acceleration stopped. The cat, at constant velocity, relaxed and was able to absorb the impact more efficiently

Answer 2

Acceleration due to gravity (32 feet per second squared).

Air resistance (try dropping a feather and a lead weight). In a vacuum the feather would fall as fast as the lead weight.

Galileo dropped two differently sized stones from the leaning tower of Pisa and proved that the mass of an object has no effect on the speed at which it falls (apart from air resistance, which is negligible unless dropping feathers).

Answer 3

in case you have been dropping parachutes, your products probable reached "terminal velocity". this is the consistent velocity at which something falls after it has sped as much as the element the place the drag stress (air resistance) upward on it balances the gravitational stress downward on it. (be conscious that each and every little thing has its own terminal velocity, which relies upon on the mass of the object and its shape--the form will impact how lots the drag stress is.) Your merchandise took the comparable time to enhance up from relax to terminal velocity, no rely which top you dropped it from. It then fell the the remainder of ways at its terminal velocity. the better you dropped it from, the extra time it spent on the terminal velocity. consequently, the better you dropped it from, the extra advantageous the conventional velocity over the entire distance replaced into.

Answer 4

Michael B above is right. gravity will pull things back to earth at a speed of 9.81 metres every second. and alternatively wind resistance slows things down, good example of this is a parachute. gravity is trying to pull it to earth real fast - but the air resistance caused by the trapped air in the parachute slows the descent