Why does a heavy object accelerate more than a light object when both are freely falling?

Answer 1

the only reason things fall is because of gravity, which is a force that attracts things together and pulls things down at the same rate, the Earths gravity is extremely large and pulls us down toward the core, but basically, the heavy object only falls because of gravity, about 9.8km/second, and wouldn't move for anyother reason. So if the earth didnt have gravity, if you moved a heavy ball up a tower and dropped it, it wouldn't fall down

Answer 2

The following formula allows you to calculate the force exerted by the Earth on an object: F=km/(r*r). F is the force the Earth's gravity exerts on the object, k is the mass of the Earth times Sir Isaac newton's constant, m is the mass of the object, and r is the distance from the object to the center of the Earth. The force of gravity is proportional to the mass of the object-the greater the mass, the greater the force.

Newton's second law of motion tells us about the acceleration an object feels when a force acts on it. Acceleration is the rate at which something speeds up and so tells us how fast it falls. Newton's second law tells us that the acceleration of an object due to a force is equal to the force exerted on the object divided by the mass of the object: a=F/m. (We'll ignore air resistance here.) According to this equation, an object's acceleration is proportional to the force exerted on the object-the greater the force, the greater the acceleration. But the acceleration is also inversely proportional to the mass of the object-the greater the mass, the smaller the acceleration. We saw above that a greater mass means a greater force of gravity, but that effect is balanced by the fact that a greater mass means a lesser acceleration.

The masses cancel out completely, and objects of any mass will fall at an equal rate. For objects near the Earth's surface the rate is about 9.8 meters per second per second. This means that if you let anything fall from a standstill, after one second it will be moving at 9.8 meters per second

Answer 3

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 !

Answer 4

You must be talking about the effect of gravity on the two objects.

It takes more force to accelerate a more massive object, and less force to accelerate

a less massive one. You know that if you've ever tried to push a bicycle first and a

battleship second.

Gravity attracts a more massive object with greater force, and a less massive object

with less force, so the result is that they both fall with the same acceleration.

Answer 5

The reason is very simple. Heavier objects are harder to accelerate than lighter objects, even for gravity. So while a heavier object experiences more force than a lighter object, this cancels out with the greater force needed to achieve the same acceleration.

The ancient Greeks knew objects had to fall at the same speed regardless of weight thanks to the following thought experiment:

Assume heavier object fall faster than lighter objects. Now imagine a heavy object and a light object connected by a short string. The heavy object will try to fall faster, pulling down on the light object. The light object will try to fall more slowly, pulling up on the heavy object.

When the string gets tight, they will have to fall at some intermediate speed with the heavy object at the bottom and the light object at the top. But now these two objects with the string are, together, an even heavier object. So mustn't they fall at a faster speed than even the heavy object?

Both arguments are totally conclusive, yet they give opposite results. Thus our original assumption, that heavier things fall faster, must be false.

Answer 6

Assuming there is no air resistance, they will accelerate exactly the same. Any differences are due to differences in the ratio of air resistance to mass (or weight).

The force per unit of mass is the same, so more mass gives you more force but the acceleration is constant. See above.

Answer 7

Because the heavier object wont catch any wind pockets and will fall straight down.

Answer 8

acc to mass*g hevier should fall first but on heavier force of friction of air is high

Answer 9

It would depend on the shape of the light object, usually it is because of air resistance.