So i know when an object is falling down to earth its 9.8m/s, well say a person is falling for 15 seconds and the person weighs 150 pounds would the person weight add to the speed that the person would achieve while falling to earth?
In: Physics
>would the person weight add to the speed that the person would achieve while falling to earth?
It would probably increase his terminal velocity. That is a function of the falling object’s wind resistance and weight. If two objects fell in a vacuum so there was no wind resistance, they would fall at the same speed regardless of weight.
For the ELI5 version of why objects fall in a vacuum at the same speed, I will recount this debate as best I can in which Galileo and a rival debated over if objects of different weight fall at the same speed.
G: So you say lighter objects fall at different speed than heavier objects.
R: Most certainly so!
G: So if cracked a rock into two fragments, a big heavy one and a small light one, the heavy one will fall faster than the light one?
R: Indeed.
G: If the smaller one falls slower than the big one, what would happen to the bigger one’s fall speed if I attached the smaller one to it with a rope? Would the slower fall speed of the small one pull up on and slow the decent of the bigger rock?
R: It must be so!
G: Would these rocks tied together fall at the same speed as the rock before being split?
R: No, for both rocks are smaller than the original rock, and the smallest rock slows down the speed of the rock it is attached to.
G: Aha! but what is the difference between the two rocks tied together and the whole rock before I split it into two pieces? Aren’t all rocks collections of potentially smaller rocks held together by what bonds them? If it fell at one speed when whole, there is no reason it should fall at a different speed having been split then then tied together to make whole again. All things fall at the same speed if not for wind resistance.
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