Monday 30 April 2012

Terminal Velocity and Free Fall!

On Friday's class we did our fun Friday quiz, and then proceeded to learn about free fall and terminal velocity.

Everything is subjected to the force of gravity, which is the force that pulls down objects during free fall!
During free fall, objects experience a force that slows them down known as air friction.
Free falling objects in air reach a state where they no longer can accelerate, or increase speed, from the force of gravity and the force of air resistance equalling each other. This is known as terminal velocity! As something is falling, for example a baseball falling from a pop fly, air resistane against the ball has a direction upwards and becomes so great that it equals the force of gravity pulling the baseball down. Once the two forces equal each other, the baseball cannot fall any faster. Mass, shape, size, and surface texture are all different factors that can change the value of terminal velocity for certain objects.




We discussed an example of a sky diver. They are free falling until they hit terminal velocity, and to slow them down they pull to let their parachute out. The air resistance then acts on the parachute, allowing them to slow down.

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