When weight acting downwards is equal to air resistance acting upwards why is the object falling???
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Newton’s laws of motion tell us that an unbalanced external force causes an object to accelerate. It follows that an object subjected to balanced forces will maintain a constant velocity.
Imagine dropping a watermelon from an airplane. At first, the force of gravity exceeds drag, so the watermelon accelerates. As its speed increases, the force of drag increases too, so the net force on the melon is lower. It still accelerates, but at a lower rate. Eventually drag cancels out weight, and there’s no more increase in velocity – the melon is now at terminal velocity. All forces are balanced but it’s still falling at a constant velocity.
Unbalanced forces will result in *acceleration*, which is a change in an object’s speed or direction. Balanced forces mean an object isn’t accelerating, so it’s speed/direction are *constant*, but not necessarily zero/stationary. It will keep moving or not moving in whatever direction that it is fir the foreseeable future until it interacts with something else or experiences another force.
I don’t get that if weight is the only force acting downwards (xN) and air resistance is exactly equal (xN) then there is 0 resultant force so the object should go anywhere????????
Force doesn’t cause speed or velocity, it causes acceleration.
Once the drag forces on a falling object are equal to the gravitational forces one it there’s no resultant force to cause acceleration. With no acceleration the object will continue to fall at a constant velocity. That velocity will only change if a net force is applied to it.
Forces act on acceleration, not speed. If the resulting force is 0, that means the acceleration is also 0 but it says nothing about the speed of the object. All you can know is that whatever speed it’s at, is constant. For a falling object being affected by gravity and drag, that speed is the terminal velocity
Force doesn’t cause speed or velocity, it causes acceleration.
Once the drag forces on a falling object are equal to the gravitational forces one it there’s no resultant force to cause acceleration. With no acceleration the object will continue to fall at a constant velocity. That velocity will only change if a net force is applied to it.
Because an object is already in motion when those forces reach balance, and if the object were to slow down or speed up then it would throw the balance off.
Before reaching terminal velocity the body accelerating downwards is is being pulled harder by gravity than they are being lifted up by air resistance. But there is already some air resistance, and it continues to increase as gravity increases the speed of falling.
You can also balance the forces out so that an object floats and place. This is exactly what is happening with every boat, and with every balloon that it’s being held roughly at 1 place in the air column. But if you started already in motion downwards then all of that force would have to be dealt with before you could balance things out in order to have buoyancy. Independent on how much force it is that might be too much. For instance, dropping a boat out of an airplane it might break apart on hitting the water or even go below the water and fill up.
Because an object is already in motion when those forces reach balance, and if the object were to slow down or speed up then it would throw the balance off.
Before reaching terminal velocity the body accelerating downwards is is being pulled harder by gravity than they are being lifted up by air resistance. But there is already some air resistance, and it continues to increase as gravity increases the speed of falling.
You can also balance the forces out so that an object floats and place. This is exactly what is happening with every boat, and with every balloon that it’s being held roughly at 1 place in the air column. But if you started already in motion downwards then all of that force would have to be dealt with before you could balance things out in order to have buoyancy. Independent on how much force it is that might be too much. For instance, dropping a boat out of an airplane it might break apart on hitting the water or even go below the water and fill up.
Newton’s laws of motion tell us that an unbalanced external force causes an object to accelerate. It follows that an object subjected to balanced forces will maintain a constant velocity.
Imagine dropping a watermelon from an airplane. At first, the force of gravity exceeds drag, so the watermelon accelerates. As its speed increases, the force of drag increases too, so the net force on the melon is lower. It still accelerates, but at a lower rate. Eventually drag cancels out weight, and there’s no more increase in velocity – the melon is now at terminal velocity. All forces are balanced but it’s still falling at a constant velocity.
Newton’s laws of motion tell us that an unbalanced external force causes an object to accelerate. It follows that an object subjected to balanced forces will maintain a constant velocity.
Imagine dropping a watermelon from an airplane. At first, the force of gravity exceeds drag, so the watermelon accelerates. As its speed increases, the force of drag increases too, so the net force on the melon is lower. It still accelerates, but at a lower rate. Eventually drag cancels out weight, and there’s no more increase in velocity – the melon is now at terminal velocity. All forces are balanced but it’s still falling at a constant velocity.
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