How Falling Works
A question recently came up in class asking about, "If all objects fall at -9.8m/s (the pull of gravity) then why is it that a bowling ball falls faster than a ping pong ball?"
In reality, they don't. Certain things just play more of a factor with air resistance than others. Obviously if you dropped a feather and a bowling ball, the bowling ball would hit first. But on a place like the moon, where there is no atmosphere, they would hit at the exact same time.
To prove this, we conducted an experiment using objects where air resistance wouldn't be a factor. To accomplish this, we needed to use heavier objects. For example, a bowling ball and a weighted ball. We then dropped them from a third floor window and sure enough, even though they were different weights, they both hit the ground at (about) the same time.
They people over at Brainiac conducted a similar experiment that we were not able to do in class. They show a car and a large tire falling from the same height. Sure enough, as the video shows, they fell and hit the ground at the exact same time.
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