Introduction to Free Fall A free falling object is an object that is falling under the sole influence of gravity.

Any object that is being acted upon only by the force of gravity is said to be in a state offree fall. There are two important motion characteristics that are true of free-falling objects:

Free-falling objects do not encounter air resistance. All free-falling objects (on Earth) accelerate downwards at a rate of 9.8 m/s/s (often

approximated as 10 m/s/s for back-of-the-envelope calculations) Because free-falling objects are accelerating downwards at a rate of 9.8 m/s/s, a ticker tape trace or dot diagram of its motion would depict an acceleration. The dot diagram at the right depicts the acceleration of a free-falling object. The position of the object at regular time intervals - say, every 0.1 second - is shown. The fact that the distance that the object travels every interval of time is increasing is a sure sign that the ball is speeding up as it falls downward. Recall from an earlier lesson, that if an object travels downward and speeds up, then its acceleration is downward.Free-fall acceleration is often witnessed in a physics classroom by means of an everpopular strobe light demonstration. The room is darkened and a jug full of water is connected by a tube to a medicine dropper. The dropper drips water and the strobe illuminates the falling droplets at a regular rate - say once every 0.2 seconds. Instead of seeing a stream of water free-falling from the medicine dropper, several consecutive drops with increasing separation distance are seen. The pattern of drops resembles the dot diagram shown in the graphic at the right.

Examples of objects in free fall include:

A spacecraft (in space) with propulsion off (e.g. in a continuous orbit, or on a suborbital trajectory (ballistics) going up for some minutes, and then down). An object dropped at the top of a drop tube. An object thrown upward or a person jumping off the ground at low speed (i.e. as long as air resistance is negligible in comparison to weight).

Technically, an object is in free fall even when moving upwards or instantaneously at rest at the top of its motion. If gravity is the only influence acting, then the acceleration is always downward and has the same magnitude for all bodies, commonly denoted .

Since all objects fall at the same rate in the absence of other forces, objects and people will experience weightlessness in these situations. Examples of objects not in free fall:

Flying in an aircraft: there is also an additional force of lift. Standing on the ground: the gravitational force is counteracted by the normal force from the ground. Descending to the Earth using a parachute, which balances the force of gravity with an aerodynamic drag force (and with some parachutes, an additional lift force).

The example of a falling skydiver who has not yet deployed a parachute is not considered free fall from a physics perspective, since they experience a drag force which equals their weight once they have achieved terminal velocity (see below). However, the term "free fall skydiving" is commonly used to describe this case in everyday speech, and in the skydiving community. It is not clear, though, whether the more recent sport of wingsuit flying fits under the definition of free fall skydiving. Measured fall time of a small steel sphere falling from various heights. The data is in good agreement with the predicted fall time of height and g is the free-fall acceleration due to gravity. Near the surface of the Earth, an object in free fall in a vacuum will accelerate at approximately 9.8 m/s, independent of its mass. With air resistance acting upon an object that has been dropped, the object will eventually reach a terminal velocity, around 56 m/s (200 km/h or 120 mph) for a human body. Terminal velocity depends on many factors including mass, drag coefficient, and relative surface area and will only be achieved if the fall is from sufficient altitude. A typical skydiver in a spread-eagle position will reach terminal velocity after about 12 seconds, during which time they will have fallen around 450 m (approx 1,500 ft).[1] Free fall was demonstrated on the moon by astronaut David Scott on August 2, 1971. He simultaneously released a hammer and a feather from the same height above the moon's surface. The hammer and the feather both fell at the same rate and hit the ground at the same time. This demonstrated Galileo's discovery that in the absence of air resistance, all objects experience the same acceleration due to gravity. (On the Moon, the gravitational acceleration is much less than on Earth, approximately 1.6 m/s). To a physicist, the term "free fall" has a different meaning than it does to a skydiver. In physics, free fall is the (one-dimensional) motion of any object under the influence of gravity only - no air resistance or friction effects of any kind, whereas it is air resistance that makes skydiving a hobby rather than a suicide attempt! You might think that since just about everything we observe falling is falling through the air, that "physics free fall" must be a pretty useless idea in practice. Not so! Any falling object's motion is at least approximately free fall as long as: , where h is the

... it is relatively heavy compared to its size. (Dropping a ball, as in the picture at right, or jumping off a chair, is a free-fall motion, but dropping an unfolded piece of paper, or the motion of a dust particle floating in the air, is not. If you crumble the paper into a "paper wad", however, its motion is approximately free fall. ... it falls for a relatively short time. (If you jump off a chair, you are in free fall. After you have jumped out of an airplane and fallen for several seconds, you are not in free fall, since air resistance is now a factor in your motion.) ... it is moving relatively slowly. (If you drop a ball or throw it down its motion will be free fall. If you shoot it out of a cannon, its motion won't be free fall.)

You should also note that an object doesn't have to be falling to be in free fall - if you throw a ball upward its motion is still considered to be free fall, since it is moving under the influence of gravity. free-fall, in mechanics, state of a body that moves freely in any manner in the presence of gravity. The planets, for example, are in free-fall in the gravitational field of the Sun. Newtons laws show that a body in free-fall follows an orbit such that the sum of the gravitational and inertial forces equals zero. This explains why an astronaut in a spacecraft orbiting the Earth experiences a condition of weightlessness: the Earths gravitational pull is equal and opposite to the inertialin this case, centrifugalforce because of the motion of the vehicle. Gravitational forces are never uniform, and therefore only the centre of mass is in free-fall. All other points of a body are subject to tidal forces because they move in a slightly different gravitational field. The Earth is in free-fall, but the pull of the Moon is not the same at the Earths surface as at its centre; the rise and fall of ocean tides occur because the oceans are not in perfect free-fall. Free Fall Galileo first introduced the concept of free fall. His classic experiments led to the finding that all objects free fall at the same rate, regardless of their mass. According to legend, Galileo dropped balls of different mass from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to help support his ideas. A freely falling body is an object that is moving under the influence of gravity only. These objects have a downward acceleration toward the center of the earth. Newton later took Galileo's ideas about mechanics and formalized them into his laws of motion. How do free-fall rides work? Free-fall rides are really made up of three distinct parts: the ride to the top, the momentary suspension, and the downward plunge. In the first part of the ride, force is applied to the car to lift it to the top of the free-fall tower. The amount of force that must be applied depends on the mass of the car and its passengers. The force is applied by motors, and there is a built-in safety allowance for variations in the mass of the riders. After a brief period in which the riders are suspended in the air, the car suddenly drops and begins to accelerate toward the ground under the influence of the earth's gravity. The plunge seems dramatic. Just as Galileo and Newton explain in their theories of free fall, the least massive and most massive riders fall to the earth with the same rate of acceleration. If the riders were allowed to hit the earth at that speed, coming to a sudden stop at the end of the ride, there would certainly be serious injuries. Ride designers account for this by building an exit track. The car is attached to this track, which gradually curves toward the ground. A stretch of straight track allows the car to slow down and brake, producing a controlled stop at the bottom, that keeps passengers from getting injured. Definition: A free falling body is any object whose motion is affected only by gravity and moves vertically. Conceptual Questions A. B. If you were to hold an object in your hand and simply let go what happens to the object? If you analyzed the motion of the object what might you notice? (hint: Think about what happens to the speed of the object.) Background Examination of free-falling bodies dates back to the days of Aristotle. At that time Aristotle believed that more massive objects would fall faster than less massive objects. He believed this in large part due to the fact that when examining a rock and a feather falling from the same height it is clear that the rock hits the ground first. Upon further examination it is clear that Aristotle was incorrect in his hypothesis. As proof take a basketball and a piece of paper. Drop them simultaneously from the same height Do they land at the same time? Probably not. Now take that piece of paper and crumple it up into a ball and repeat the experiment. Now what do you see happen? You should see that both the ball and the paper land at the same time. Therefore we can come to the conclusion that Aristotle's predictions did not account for the effect of air resistance. For the purposes of this course, we will neglect drag forces such as air resistance.

Objects Dropped From Rest

Objects starting from rest have an initial velocity of zero, giving us our first kinematic quantity we'll need for problem solving. Beyond that, if we call the direction of motion positive, the object will have a positive acceleration (i.e. speeding up) as it falls.

Choosing a Frame of Reference An important first step in analyzing objects in free fall is deciding what direction along the y-axis we are going to call positive and which direction will therefore be negative. Although you can set your positive direction any way you want and get the correct answer, following the hints below can simplify your work to reach that correct answer: A. Identify what direction the object will initially move and assign that as your positive direction. In this case the positive y-direction will point toward the bottom of the paper. B. With the axes identified you can now identify and write down your given information. Of course, you'll need to identify a third given from the problem information in order to solve for your unknowns: o vi=0 o vf=? o d=? o a=9.81 m/s2 o t=? Notice the direction the vector arrows are drawn drawn -- if the velocity and acceleration point in the same direction, the object speeds up. If they point in opposite directions, the object slows down. KEY CONCEPT: The magnitude of the acceleration due to gravity (g) is a constant 9.81 m/s2 on the surface of Earth. For the purposes of this discussion we will say that as long as an object is in the air near the surface of the Earth, it is always experiencing acceleration with a magnitude of g Objects Launched Upward Examining the motion of an object being launched vertically upward is done in much the same way we examined the motion of an object falling from rest. The major difference is we have to look at two components to its motion instead of one... Up and Down... instead of just down. Before we get into establishing our frame of reference and working through the quantitative analysis let's build a solid conceptual understanding of what is happening while the ball is in the air. Consider the ball being thrown vertically into the air as shown in the diagram at right. Question: In order for the ball to move upwards can it's initial velocity be zero? Answer: No, in order for the object to go up its initial velocity must be greater than zero. Question: What happens to the velocity as the ball is in the air? Answer: As the ball rises its velocity decreases until it reaches its maximum height, stops, and begins to fall. As the ball falls, the velocity increases. In other words the ball is accelerating the entire time it is in the air. Question: What causes the ball's acceleration? Answer: Gravity! This means that the acceleration of the ball the entire time it is in the air is 9.81m/s 2 down provided we are on Earth. Notice that the acceleration can be either +9.81m/s2 or -9.81m/s2. Which sign it carries is entirely dependent on the direction we have labeled as positive. Question: How can we describe the motion of the ball as it reaches its maximum altitude? Answer: Typically motion is described in terms of velocity and acceleration. We have already shown the ball's acceleration for the entire time it is in the air is 9.81m/s2 down. This acceleration causes the ball's velocity to decrease at a constant rate until it reaches maximum altitude, at which point it turns around and starts to fall. In order to turn around the ball's velocity must pass through zero. Therefore, at maximum altitude the velocity of the ball must be zero. Question: How does the time to reach maximum altitude compare to the time to fall back down?

C.

Answer: Since gravity provides the same acceleration to the ball on the way up (slowing it down) as on the way down (speeding it up), the time to reach maximum altitude is the same as the time to return to its launch position. In similar fashion, the initial velocity of the ball on the way up will equal the velocity of the ball at the instant it reaches the point from which it was launched on the way down. Choosing a Frame of Reference Now that we have established a conceptual understanding of the ball's motion we can begin to establish a quantitative solution. As with any problem, that solution starts with establishing our frame of reference. Following the rule of thumb established previously, we will assign the direction the ball begins to move as positive. (Remember that assigning positive and negative directions are completely arbitrary. You have the freedom to assign them how you see fit. Once you assign them, however, don't change them).

Notice in the figure above we have assigned the up direction as positive. This is simply following the "rule" of assigning the original direction of motion as positive. Remember, now that we've assigned our positive and negative directions we cannot change them. Since we have an object that moves in two different directions (up AND down) it is important that we pay close attention to the vector nature of this object's motion. Let's examine each independently. Notice in the "Moving Up" case the acceleration and the velocity are pointing the opposite directions. This means (unsurprisingly) the object will slow down as it travels upward. In the "Moving Down" case, the acceleration vector and the velocity vector point in the same direction. This means the object will speed up as it falls, which is consistent with what we observe every day. A trick of the trade to solving free fall problems in which an object starts moving up, stops, and comes back down involves symmetry. The time an object takes to reach its highest point is equal to the time it takes to return to the same vertical position. The speed with which the projectile begins its journey upward is equal to the speed of the projectile when it returns to the same height (although, of course, its velocity is in the opposite direction). And, if you want to simplify the problem, realize that vertically, at its highest point, for an instant the vertical velocity is 0. This added information can assist you in filling out your vertical motion tables. If you cut the objects motion in half, you can simplify your problem solving but dont forget that if you want the total time in the air, you must double the time it takes for the object to rise to its highest point.