Free Fall Essay

1109 Words3 Pages

INTRODUCTION
I am interested to investigate about the falling of an object and air resistance as this is the key to the understanding of all motions of all bodies. This concept is related to the acceleration, which is the rate of change of velocity of the object when they fall. According to Galileo Galilei, free fall acceleration is independent on the object’s mass. Free fall is the falling of an object that is only under influence of gravity. However, this is only true when the object is released in a vacuum. In real life, ideal free fall acceleration does not exist. This is because there is other force such as air resistance that acts upon the falling object. So, the falling of an object is not only depends on the gravity that is acting. …show more content…

So, in my essay, I will study about the factors that will cause the air resistance to act differently upon the object, and how this will affect the falling time or the acceleration of the falling object. I think that this investigation is significant as this concept can be applied in a much larger scenario such as in the making of a parachute. Using the result obtained, I might come up with the best modification that can be made on a parachute so that the parachute can have a longer falling time.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
The study of falling objects was first formalized by Aristotle who based his conclusions on the theory of the four elements, air, water, fire, and Earth. Under this theory, different material will act accordingly with their nature; a rock will fall because is made out of Earth elements and the natural tendency of such material is to be with materials of the same nature. In the same form, smoke will have to raise up toward the natural place for air elements. Materials with combinations of elements such as a fader will fall to the ground at a different speed because of its tendency to belong to the two elements, air and …show more content…

EXPERIMENT I – Varying the size of the object
Aim : How does the air resistance affect object of different size?
Hypothesis : The larger the size, the more air resistance will act upon the object, the longer the falling time.
Materials : Manilla card of different size (25.00cm², 100.00cm², 225.00cm² 400.00cm², 625.00 cm², 900.00cm²) , stopwatch (±0.01s), metre rule (±0.05m)
Method :
A manila card is cut into several squares with 5cm, 10cm, 15cm, 20cm, 25cm and 30 cm sides respectively. The square manila card is dropped from a 1 m height in a closed room. The falling time of the manila card is measured using stopwatch. The time is recorded. The experiment is repeated three times.

EXPERIMENT II – Varying the shape of the object
Aim : How does the air resistance affect object of different shape?
Hypothesis : Object of different shape will hve the same falling time due to the same surface area.
Materials : Manilla card of different shapes which have a surface area of 400.00cm² (circle, triangle, square, hexagon, octagon) , stopwatch (±0.01s), metre rule (±0.05m)
Method

Open Document