Caden Lewis

Mrs. Beck

Physics

10.14.18

The Science Behind Falling Objects

In the world prior to the Sixteenth Century, it was generally assumed that the

acceleration of a falling object was proportional to the body’s mass; it was believed that a 10

pound object would fall faster than a 1 pound object. This rule was recorded in the first

mechanical book by the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, whose works were widely read

and accepted. However, during the Renaissance, italian scientist Galileo Galilei challenged

these preconceived notions on gravity and the movement of a falling body. Galileo reportedly

dropped several objects over the side of the Tower of Pisa, and quite contrary to the teachings

of Aristotle, the two objects struck the ground simultaneously. Most of his observations of

falling bodies were really of bodies rolling down ramps. This slowed things down enough to

the point where he was able to measure the time intervals with water clocks and his own

pulse. Through these methods, Galilei determined: “that in a medium totally devoid of

resistance all bodies would fall with the same speed”.

Galileo’s experiments disproved the Aristotelian ideology of a proportional

distribution of acceleration based on the mass of an object. In turn he discovered that, without
being affected by outside factors, all falling objects would accelerate at the same rate. An

object that falls through a vacuum is subjected to only one external force, the gravitational

force, expressed as the weight of the object.

An object that is moving only because of the action of gravity is said to be free

falling.The acceleration is constant and equal to the gravitational acceleration g which is 9.8

meters per square second at sea level on the Earth. The force of gravity causes objects to fall

toward the center of Earth. The acceleration of free-falling objects is therefore called the

acceleration due to gravity. The acceleration due to gravity is constant, this means we can

apply the kinematics equations to any falling object where air resistance and friction are

negligible.

However in the real world, several factors will affect the pure pull of gravity and

modify the constant 9.8. G may vary from 9.78 m/s2 to 9.83 m/s2, “depending on latitude,

altitude, underlying geological formations, and local topography.” In addition, air resistance

can cause a lighter object to fall slower than a heavier object of the same size. “A tennis ball

will reach the ground after a hard baseball dropped at the same time. Air resistance opposes

the motion of an object through the air, while friction between objects—such as between

clothes and a laundry chute or between a stone and a pool into which it is dropped—also

opposes motion between them.”

 Works Cited

Elert, Glenn. “Free Fall.” Free Fall – The Physics Hypertextbook, physics.info/falling/.

“Motion of Free Falling Object.” NASA, NASA,

www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/mofall.html.

OpenStax. “Falling Objects.” Lumen,

courses.lumenlearning.com/physics/chapter/2-7-falling-objects/.