Suppose that you are watching an object fall from a great height. Furthermore, s

Question

Suppose that you are watching an object fall from a great height. Furthermore, suppose that the object is falling "freely;" in other words, the force of air resistance acting on the object is always small enough to ignore, so that the only force effectively acting on the object is the force of gravity on the object by the Earth. Objects in a vacuum, which are in contact with nothing, are always falling freely (the word "vacuum" describes the absence of any kind of atmosphere, air or otherwise).  If the object that you are watching is truly falling freely, then by how much would its speed increase with each second of fall? Give your answer in m/s.

Explanation / Answer

Under free fall, the only force acting on a body is gravity. We know acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s^2. This means velocity of a freely falling body increases by 9.8 m/s for every second it falls.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse S
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.