If the resistance force against falling objects, is always equivalent to its weight (so they can fall faster higher up because of thinner air and lower resistance), why do meteorites burn up in the atmosphere, but rocks can be pushed way faster than their terminal velocity in water but nothing really happens?
In: Physics
In the atmosphere, the air immediately in front of the object is being compressed so fast that it’s generating enormous amounts of heat. Remember that gases change in volume with a change in pressure, while liquids do not. So in a liquid at terminal velocity isn’t causing the compression in front of it that being in a gas at terminal velocity would. It’s just pushing that volume of water away from it.
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