Galileo’s law of falling bodies states that the rate of fall caused by gravity is the same for all objects, regardless of weight. This means that all objects have a free-falling acceleration of 9.8m/s2. However, a significant contradiction of this theory is the fact that a lump of lead will fall faster than objects such as feathers. According to Newton’s laws, an object will accelerate if the forces acting on it are unbalanced. Falling objects initially accelerate due to the fact that there is no force large enough to balance the downward force of gravity. Nonetheless, as an object gains speed, it encounters an increasing amount of upward air resistance force. In fact, objects will continue to accelerate until the air resistance force increases to a large enough value to balance the downward force of gravity. Overall, since the lump of lead has more mass, it weighs more and thus, experiences a greater downward force of gravity than the feather. Thus, the lump of lead will accelerate for a longer period of time before there is sufficient upward air resistance to balance the large downward force of gravity. Nonetheless, as the feather has more surface area when compared to its mass, it results in the proportionately higher surface area creating more air resistance for the feather. This means that the feather will have to accelerate for a shorter amount of time than the lead until there is enough air resistance to balance its lighter weight. However, in a vacuum – where there is no air resistance – the lump of lead would fall at the same rate as the feather under the force of gravity.

Question

Galileo’s law of falling bodies states that the rate of fall caused by gravity is the same for all objects, regardless of weight. This means that all objects have a free-falling acceleration of 9.8m/s2. However, a significant contradiction of this theory is the fact that a lump of lead will fall faster than objects such as feathers. According to Newton’s laws, an object will accelerate if the forces acting on it are unbalanced. Falling objects initially accelerate due to the fact that there is no force large enough to balance the downward force of gravity. Nonetheless, as an object gains speed, it encounters an increasing amount of upward air resistance force. In fact, objects will continue to accelerate until the air resistance force increases to a large enough value to balance the downward force of gravity. Overall, since the lump of lead has more mass, it weighs more and thus, experiences a greater downward force of gravity than the feather. Thus, the lump of lead will accelerate for a longer period of time before there is sufficient upward air resistance to balance the large downward force of gravity. Nonetheless, as the feather has more surface area when compared to its mass, it results in the proportionately higher surface area creating more air resistance for the feather.  This means that the feather will have to accelerate for a shorter amount of time than the lead until there is enough air resistance to balance its lighter weight. However, in a vacuum – where there is no air resistance – the lump of lead would fall at the same rate as the feather under the force of gravity.

Is this correct?