Question

Objects of different mass were used to see whether the acceleration due to gravity depends on the mass of a falling object. In other words, does a heavier object fall faster than a lighter object? What do the experimental results show?

Answer 1

Answer:

No, the two objects fall with the same acceleration

Explanation:

For an object in free fall, the only force acting on it is the force of gravity, acting downward, of magnitude

$F=mg$

where

m is the mass of the object

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

According to Newton's second law of motion, we can find the acceleration of the object by using

$F=ma$

where F is the net force on the object and a is the acceleration.

Equating the two equations, we get:

$ma=mg\\a=g$

Which means that the acceleration of any object in free fall is always $g$, regardless of its mass. Therefore, a heavier object and a ligher object falls with the same acceleration, and so with same velocity.

However, this is not what experimental results show. The reason is that an object in free fall on Earth is not under vacuum, but there is another force acting on it: the air resistance, acting upward and resisting the motion of the object. The magnitude of the air resistance depends on several factors, such as density of the medium, shape of the object, speed: as a result, a heavier object and a lighter object will fall at different rates, due to the presence of this force.