Does a heavier thing fall quicker?

Answer 1

no not really. for example if a grape and orange fall, they land at the same time. but if a feather and a orange fall well obviously the orange will fall first.

It's maybe the most famous scientific experiment, Galileo Galilei's dropping objects from the leaning tower of Pisa in order to prove that all objects fall at the same rate, whatever their mass.In his Two New Sciences (1634) Galileo discusses the mathematics (first to apply mathematics for physics analysis) of a simple type of motion what we call today uniform acceleration or constant acceleration. Then he proposes that heavy bodies actually fall in just that way and that if it was possible to create a vacuum, any two falling bodies would travel the same distance in the same time. On the basis of this proposal, he predicts about balls rolling down an inclined plane, Finally, he describes some inclined plane experiments corroborating his theory.Galileo used inclined planes for his experiment to slow the acceleration enough so that the elapsed time could be measured. The ball was allowed to roll a known distance down the ramp, and the time taken for the ball to move the known distance was measured. The time was measured using a water clock.Galileo showed that the motion on an inclined plane had constant acceleration, dependent only on the angle of the plane and not the mass of the rolling body. Galileo then argued that free-fall motion behaved in an analogous fashion because it was possible to describe a free-fall motion as an inclined plane motion with an angle of 90°. Using Newton's laws, we can prove Galileo's theory by decomposing the gravitational force, acting on the rolling balls, into two vectors, one perpendicular to the inclined plane and one parallel to it. http://www.physics.smu.edu/~ryszard/1313fa98/1313-Incline_.PDFFollowing his experiments, Galileo formulated the equation for a falling body or an object moving in uniform acceleration: d=1/2gt2.The is some evidence shows that such experiments were performed by various scientists and experimenters preceding Galileo's work about falling bodies and by this disproving Aristotle's assertion that heavier bodies fall faster than light ones.As early as 1544, the historian Benedetto Varchi referred to actual tests which refuted Aristotle's assertion.In 1576, Giuseppe Moletti, Galileo's predecessor in the chair of mathematics at the university of Padua, reported that bodies of the same material but different weight, as well as bodies of the same volume but different material, dropped from a height arrived at the Earth at the same time.In 1597 Jacopo Mazzoni, of the University of Pisa, reported that he had observed objects falling at the same speed regardless of weight and pieces of an object descending at the same rate as the whole.The most notorious of those is Simon Stevin that in 1586 (3 years before Galileo) reported that different weights fell a given distance in the same time. His experiments, with the help of his friend Jan Cornetts de Groot, were conducted using two lead balls, one being ten times the weight of the other, which he dropped thirty feet from the church tower in Delft. from the sound of the impacts they concluded that the spheres fell with the same speed, not as stated by Aristotle. Stevin is regarded by many as the first one to perform falling bodies experiments.Experiments to demonstrate the phenomenon.1. Hold on the tip of the fingers of different hands a coin and a paper disc about one meter or more above the floor. Drop both of them simultaneously. The coin will reach the floor before the paper disc. From this experiment is possible to conclude mistakenly that heavier objects fall faster.2. Mount the paper disc on the coin and drop them together. Both objects will reach the ground at the same time. The meaning of this experiment is that not the amount of mass causes falling bodies to fall faster or slower but the resistance/friction of air because air resistance is applied here only to the coin and not to the paper disc and by that we can infer that air resistance and not the amount of mass prevented the paper disc from falling faster - the same as the coin.To exclude the possibility that the coin and the disc of paper attract each other you can show that they do not stick together in any position.Experiments are from:Weiss Moshe, Physics by Experimental Demonstrations, vol II, Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1968, pp. 208-209

Answer 2

In a vacuum heavy things fall at the same rate as light things. This fact of Newtonian physics has been proved many times over. During the Apollo 15 mission a feather and a hammer were dropped and this was demonstrated very graphically.

However, in an atmosphere heavier things generally fall faster than lighter things although the opposite can also be true. This isn't because gravity works any differently, but because of "drag" - air friction acting to slow the falling object. A feather has much more surface area compared to its weight than a hammer does, and so in an atmosphere it falls slower. Conversely, a Bowling ball is much lighter than an airplane, but due to aerodynamic factors the ball would fall much faster.

It's maybe the most famous scientific experiment, Galileo Galilei's dropping objects from the leaning tower of Pisa in order to prove that all objects fall at the same rate, whatever their mass.In his Two New Sciences (1634) Galileo discusses the mathematics (first to apply mathematics for physics analysis) of a simple type of motion what we call today uniform acceleration or constant acceleration. Then he proposes that heavy bodies actually fall in just that way and that if it was possible to create a vacuum, any two falling bodies would travel the same distance in the same time. On the basis of this proposal, he predicts about balls rolling down an inclined plane, Finally, he describes some inclined plane experiments corroborating his theory.Galileo used inclined planes for his experiment to slow the acceleration enough so that the elapsed time could be measured. The ball was allowed to roll a known distance down the ramp, and the time taken for the ball to move the known distance was measured. The time was measured using a water clock.Galileo showed that the motion on an inclined plane had constant acceleration, dependent only on the angle of the plane and not the mass of the rolling body. Galileo then argued that free-fall motion behaved in an analogous fashion because it was possible to describe a free-fall motion as an inclined plane motion with an angle of 90°. Using Newton's laws, we can prove Galileo's theory by decomposing the gravitational force, acting on the rolling balls, into two vectors, one perpendicular to the inclined plane and one parallel to it. http://www.physics.smu.edu/~ryszard/1313fa98/1313-Incline_.PDFFollowing his experiments, Galileo formulated the equation for a falling body or an object moving in uniform acceleration: d=1/2gt2.The is some evidence shows that such experiments were performed by various scientists and experimenters preceding Galileo's work about falling bodies and by this disproving Aristotle's assertion that heavier bodies fall faster than light ones.As early as 1544, the historian Benedetto Varchi referred to actual tests which refuted Aristotle's assertion.In 1576, Giuseppe Moletti, Galileo's predecessor in the chair of mathematics at the university of Padua, reported that bodies of the same material but different weight, as well as bodies of the same volume but different material, dropped from a height arrived at the Earth at the same time.In 1597 Jacopo Mazzoni, of the University of Pisa, reported that he had observed objects falling at the same speed regardless of weight and pieces of an object descending at the same rate as the whole.The most notorious of those is Simon Stevin that in 1586 (3 years before Galileo) reported that different weights fell a given distance in the same time. His experiments, with the help of his friend Jan Cornetts de Groot, were conducted using two lead balls, one being ten times the weight of the other, which he dropped thirty feet from the church tower in Delft. from the sound of the impacts they concluded that the spheres fell with the same speed, not as stated by Aristotle. Stevin is regarded by many as the first one to perform falling bodies experiments.Experiments to demonstrate the phenomenon.1. Hold on the tip of the fingers of different hands a coin and a paper disc about one meter or more above the floor. Drop both of them simultaneously. The coin will reach the floor before the paper disc. From this experiment is possible to conclude mistakenly that heavier objects fall faster.2. Mount the paper disc on the coin and drop them together. Both objects will reach the ground at the same time. The meaning of this experiment is that not the amount of mass causes falling bodies to fall faster or slower but the resistance/friction of air because air resistance is applied here only to the coin and not to the paper disc and by that we can infer that air resistance and not the amount of mass prevented the paper disc from falling faster - the same as the coin.To exclude the possibility that the coin and the disc of paper attract each other you can show that they do not stick together in any position.Experiments are from:Weiss Moshe, Physics by Experimental Demonstrations, vol II, Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1968, pp. 208-209

Answer 3

Assume we have a 10kg ball and a 1kg ball. Let us assume the 10kg ball falls faster than the 1kg ball, since it is heavier. Now, lets tie the two balls together. What will happen then? Will the combined object fall slower, since the 1kg ball will hold back the 10kg ball? Or will the combination fall faster, since it is now an 11kg object? Since both can't happen, the only possibility is that they were falling at the same rate in the first place.

Sounds extremely convincing. But, I think there is a slight fallacy in the argument. It mentions nothing about the nature of the force involved, so it looks like it should work with any kind of force! However, it is not quite true. If we lived on a world where the 'falling' was due to electrical forces, and objects had masses and permanent charges, things would be different. Things with zero charge would not fall no matter what their mass is. In fact, the falling rate would be proportional to q/m, where q is the charge and m is the mass. When you tie two objects, 1 and 2, with charges q1, q2, and m1, m2, the combined object will fall at a rate (q1+q2)/(m1+m2). Assuming q1/m1 < q2/m2, or object 2 falls faster than object one, the combined object will fall at an intermediate rate (this can be shown easily). But, there is another point. The 'weight' of an object is the force acting on it. That is just proportional to q, the charge. Since what matters for the falling rate is q/m, the weight will have no definite relation to rate of fall. In fact, you could have a zero-mass object with charge q, which will fall infinitely fast, or an infinite-mass object with charge q, which will not fall at all, but they will 'weigh' the same! So, in fact, the original argument should be reduced to the following statement, which is more accurate:

If all objects which have equal weight fall at the same rate, then _all_ objects will fall at the same rate, regardless of their weight.

In mathematical terms, this is equivalent to saying that if q1=q2 then m1=m2 or, q/m is the same for all objects, they will all fall at the same rate! All in all, this is pretty hollow an argument.

Going back to the case of gravity.. The gravitational force is

( G is a constant, called constant of gravitation, M is the mass of the attracting body (here, earth), and m1 is the 'gravitational mass' of the object.)

And newton's law of motion is

where m2 is the 'inertial mass' of the object, and a is the acceleration.

Now, solving for acceleration, we find:

Which is proportional to m1/m2, i.e. the gravitational mass divided by the inertial mass. This is our old 'q/m' from the electrical case! Now, if and only if m1/m2 is a constant for all objects, (this constant can be absorbed into G, so the question can be reduced to m1=m2 for all objects) they will all fall at the same rate. If this ratio varies, then we will have no definite relation between rate of fall, and weight.

So, all in all, we are back to square one. Which is just canceling the masses in the equations, thus showing that they must fall at the same rate. The equality of the two masses is a necessity for general relativity, and enters it naturally. Also, the two masses have been found to be equal to extremely good precision experimentally. The correct answer to the question 'why objects with different masses fall at the same rate?' is, 'beacuse the gravitational and inertial masses are equal for all objects.'

Then, why does the argument sound so convincing? Since our daily experience and intuition dictates that things which weigh the same, fall at the same rate. Once we assume that, we have implicitly already assumed that the gravitational mass is equal to the inertial mass. (Wow, what things we do without noticing!). The rest of the argument follows easily and naturally...

Answer 4

If you have a cube or something like that, then friction will slow it down, but if it's round and both of the objects are the same size, then they will go both the same speed