Falling Objects

1
Falling Objects

• SCI 201

2
Driving Questions

• What determines the rate at which objects fall?
• What kind of motion do falling objects exhibit?
• What determines the strength of the gravitational
  forces on objects?
• What is air resistance and what factors
  influence?
• What effect does air resistance have on falling
  objects?

3
Inquiry Drop the following pairs of objects and
determine which, if either, hits the ground first.

• a quarter and a penny
• a quarter and a piece of paper
• a quarter and a loosely wadded piece of paper
• a quarter and a tightly wadded piece of paper
• a penny and a loosely wadded piece of paper
• a penny and a tightly wadded piece of paper
• a piece of paper and a loosely wadded piece of
  paper
• a piece of paper and a tightly wadded piece of
  paper

4

• What conclusions can you draw based on the class
  results?

5
Do heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones?

• Apollo 15 experiment
• Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation
• Knowing what you know about Force and Motion and
  N.L.U.G., how can you explain the Apollo 15
  experiment?

6
Air Resistance

• What is it?
• What affects it?
• Using Newtons 2nd Law, Newtons Law of Universal
  Gravitation to explain the motion of a sky-diver
  and the concept of terminal velocity

7
Driving Questions

• What determines the rate at which objects fall?
• What kind of motion do falling objects exhibit?
• What determines the strength of the gravitational
  forces on objects?
• What is air resistance and what factors
  influence?
• What effect does air resistance have on falling
  objects?

8
Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation

• Every object in the universe is attracted to
  every other object in the universe by a force
  that is directly proportional to the product of
  their masses and inversely proportional to the
  square of the distance between them.

m1
D
m2