Question

Free fall is a situation in which the only force acting upon an object is gravity. Why do all objects in free fall have

Answer 1

Answer:

Because the acceleration due to gravity does not depend on the mass of the object

Explanation:

An object is said to be in free fall if there is only one force acting on it: the force of gravity, whose magnitude is

$F=mg$

where

m is the mass of the object

$g=9.8 m/s^2$ is the acceleration due to gravity

From the formula, we observe that the force of gravity acting on an object depends on its mass. However, its acceleration does not. In fact, according to Newton's second law of motion, the net force acting on an object is equal to the product between its mass and its acceleration:

$F=ma$

where a is the acceleration. By combining the two equations, we get:

$ma=mg\\\rightarrow a = g$

which means that the acceleration of any object in free fall is equal to $g$, the acceleration due to gravity, because it does not depend on the mass of the object.