Why do objects of different mass fall to earth at the same rate?

Answer 1

As objects get heavier, two different things are happening: they experience a greater gravitational attraction to the Earth, but they also have more inertia, requiring greater force in order to accelerate them. As it turns out, these two things cancel each other out exactly. That is why, excluding air resistance, everything falls at exactly the same rate, no matter how heavy or light a given falling object may be. Another way of putting this is that gravitational mass and inertial mass are the same. Physicists are not entirely sure why they are the same, and this remains an important question of theoretical physics.

Answer 2

It depends what the surface of the object is so like a sail can catch wind because flat and not round which would cause the wind to go around the object so if you think about it a heavy flat object might fall at the same rate as a light round object

Answer 3

The gravitational force on an object is proportional to its mass; that is, if you double the mass of the object, then the gravitational force on that object also doubles. Also, force is DEFINED as mass times acceleration*.

So lets say the force F of gravity is F=Gm where G is something that does NOT depend on mass. and m is the mass of an object. Well by definition, F = ma, where a is the acceleration. Combining the definition of force with the gravitational force suggests F=Gm=ma=F, or by dividing each side by m, G=a.

Now, like I said, G doesn't depend on m, and since G=a, a doesn't depend on m. The acceleration of an object due to gravitation does not depend on the mass of the object.

*Actually force is defined as the time rate of change of momentum, but if mass is constant, then the time rate of momentum is just mass times acceleration.

In an electric field, the electric force on an object does NOT depend on the object's mass, so if Earth had an electric field instead of a gravitational field, then objects with greater mass would not fall as fast and objects with less mass (under the same force).

Answer 4

Objects of different masses free-fall at the same acceleration because they are subjected to the same gravity. Even though they may have different masses, and thus have different forces of gravity (weight), their inertia will counteract the force of gravity and cause them to accelerate at the same rate.

Answer 5

On Earth this does not happen because of the air. If Earth were to have for example, no air then objects would fall at the same rate.

To prove this, take two identical pieces of paper. Scrunch one up into a ball but leave the other one alone. Drop them together at the same time on Earth and the scrunched paper will drop before the straight paper. On a planet without air, if you drop the scrunched piece of paper and the smooth paper at the same time, they would reach the ground at the same time.

Answer 6

Objects of different mass fall to Earth at the same rate because of gravity. Gravity exerts the same force on all objects regardless of their mass, causing them to accelerate at the same rate toward the Earth's surface. This is known as the principle of equivalence, as stated by Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Answer 7

When something falls from somwhere its because of gravity

and gravity has an exact speed so everything falls at the same rate

Answer 8

Objects fall to the ground because the acceleration due to gravity is the same for all objects near Earth's surface.

Answer 9

They don't.