Answer:
Near the surface of the Earth, an object in free fall in a vacuum will accelerate at approximately 9.8 m/s2, independent of its mass. With air resistance acting on an object that has been dropped, the object will eventually reach a terminal velocity, which is around 53 m/s (190 km/h or 118 mph) for a human skydiver.
Explanation:
It’s a good thing this mountain climber’s safety gear is working, because it’s a long way down to the ground! If he were to fall, he’d be moving really fast by the time he got there. The higher any object starts falling from above Earth’s surface, the faster it’s traveling by the time it reaches the ground. Do you know why? The reason is gravity.
Speeding up While Falling Down
Gravity is a force that pulls objects down toward the ground. When objects fall to the ground, gravity causes them to accelerate. Acceleration is a change in velocity, and velocity, in turn, is a measure of the speed and direction of motion. Gravity causes an object to fall toward the ground at a faster and faster velocity the longer the object falls. In fact, its velocity increases by 9.8 m/s2, so by 1 second after an object starts falling, its velocity is 9.8 m/s. By 2 seconds after it starts falling, its velocity is 19.6 m/s (9.8 m/s + 9.8 m/s), and so on. The acceleration of a falling object due to gravity is illustrated in the Figure below.
Mass and Acceleration Due to Gravity
What if you were to drop a bowling ball and a basketball at the same time from the same distance above the ground? The bowling ball has greater mass than the basketball, so the pull of gravity on it is greater. Would it fall to the ground faster? No, the bowling ball and basketball would reach the ground at the same time. The reason? The more massive bowling ball is also harder to move because of its greater mass, so it ends up moving at the same acceleration as the basketball. This is true of all falling objects. They all accelerate at the same rate due to gravity, unless air resistance affects one object more than another. For example, a falling leaf is slowed down by air resistance more than a falling acorn because of the leaf’s greater surface area.
Q: If a leaf and an acorn were to fall to the ground in the absence of air (that is, in a vacuum), how would this affect their acceleration due to gravity?
A: They would both accelerate at the same rate and reach the ground at the same time.
Hope it helps
