I know planes can turn forward motion into upward force, but would a sphere take longer to hit the ground if it was launched straight forward at high speed than it would if it was dropped straight down.
Edit: what about frisbees or throw playing cards? are they actually falling slower because they’re moving fast or are they just maintaining maximum air resistance?
In: Physics
In general, no.
In perfect circumstances, if you fire a cannon and drop a cannon ball from the same height at the same time, the canon balls should hit the ground at the same time. This assumes you are aiming the cannon parallel to the ground and the ground is perfectly flat.
However, there are some exceptions.
Because the earth is a sphere and gravity is determined by how far away we are from the earth, it is possible for your forward motion to take you further away from the planet at the exact same rate as gravity is pulling you to the planet. This is orbital velocity and it depends on your altitude. The international space station, because it is in low earth orbit, must orbit the planet every 92 minutes to keep from falling out of the sky. The moon, because it is much further away, only orbits the planet every 27 days and also never falls out of the sky.
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