Gravity: The Bigger They Are The Faster They Fall?

In this educational video a couple Clemson students set out to show how mass is irrelevant when it comes to gravity and that all objects fall at the same rate of speed.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• gravity
• Newton
• mass
• math
• teach
• clemson
• fall
• height
• ball

[kevino1383]

diderent things also act diferent.. take 3 balloons. one fill with air, one filled with helium, and the last filled with argon gas. all with the same amount of mass, but all three will act different through the air. the math in this video is only usefull when experimenting in a vacuum.. fluid dynamics

[kevino1383]

first i dont believe you can open both your hands at the exact same time, second if you had, the heavier ball droped from 30ft would only hit .03 or so seconds before the other. not noticable with the naked eye. mass definatly comes into affect along with the surface area in contact with the air resistance. take a sheet of paper and another with a text book behind it.. i bet the text book will hit first.

[detravon]

Density of an object has nothing to do with air resistance. The only important factor is surface area exposed to the air as it fall. The greater the area, the greater the upward force due to air resistance. In the case of two balls of different size and different mass, ie a tennis ball and a bowling ball, the bowling ball would indeed experience more air resistance due to a higher surface area, but the increase in resistance would have no significant affect on the time it takes to hit the ground

[DIME10NASA]

An object's speed, while falling in air, increases until the upward force due to air drag equals the objects weight. The object then continues at that speed, known as its terminal velocity.

[caste2510]

if u dropped a feather which is less massive and a football which is more massive, the football would hit the ground first because air resistance would come into play and slow the feather down... same with a sheet of paper... but referring to the balls shown in this video, they have exactly the same size and thats y gravity somehow overwhelms air resistance and thus fall at the same speed regardless of the mass. so it also depends on what u drop. some fall the same rate and some do not!

[Bouncert]

duude...i just tried it.....it really works.

science is weird....thanx for teh vid

[aeemnrsu]

F_d=-.5(rho)(C_d)(A)v^2

where

F_d = drag force

rho = density of the air

C_d = drag coefficient

A = reference area

v = velocity

[Amyjojo123]

Thank you that helped me with my project!

[ebpm4life]

Great video.

Wouldn't mass be an important factor when measuring how fast an object falls when factoring in air restistance? If they would have fallen from a greater height, there would have been more air resistance on the denser ball, wouldn't there have been?