Gravity | Experiment 1 - Gravity: How fast do different objects fall?
Experiment 1
Gravity: How fast do different objects fall?
Purpose/Hypothesis
In this experiment, you will determine the effect that mass has on the gravitational pull exerted on a falling object. You will drop three pencils taped together at the same time as you drop a single pencil to see whether the heavier group falls faster. You will also drop two objects of about the same weight (a pencil and a Ping-Pong ball) but with different shapes to see which falls faster.
According to the laws of physics, the falling rate for all objects is the same. Gravity does pull harder on objects with more mass. However, objects with more mass also have more inertia. Inertia causes objects to continue whatever motion is affecting them. That means objects at rest tend to stay at rest—they resist moving. The more mass an object has, the more inertia it has. The amount of force needed to overcome...
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