Why doesn't a heavy object accelerate more than a light object when both are freely falling?

Answer 1

Here's the answer, and I love it. Let's assume that heavy objects fall faster

and light objects fall slower, just like everybody wants them to.

Follow me now . . .

-- Heavier objects fall faster. Lighter objects fall slower.

-- Take a heavy object and a light object up to the roof of a tall building.

Then take a piece of sticky tape, and stick the light object onto the back

of the heavy one. Then walk carefully to the edge of the roof, and drop

the package over the side. As you do that, yell down "Look out below!"

-- The heavier object normally falls faster, so it tries to pull the package ahead.

The lighter object normally falls slower, so it tries to hold the package back. So

as they fight each other, the package falls at some middle speed, slower than

the heavy object alone, and faster than the lighter object alone.

-- But wait! They're taped together. How is that different from being glued together ?

Or melted together ? Or welded together ? Or even inside the same skin ?

-- Or even being the same single object ? They could just as well be a single object,

one that weighs a little more than the original heavier object.

-- But we just agreed that the package falls a little slower than the original heavier object,

even though it's heavier than the original heavier object.

-- Our orignal assumption . . . that a heavy object falls faster than a lght object . . . leads us

down the garden path to a ridiculous result.

That assumption must be wrong.

Don't ya just love it !