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Old 06-29-09 | 01:57 PM
  #140  
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somedood
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Originally Posted by supramax
I can't remember who it was (and I'm not gonna check) that didn't want to hear this again, but The speed of a falling body is independent of its weight.
That's ridiculous, and you know it is. If that were the case, you could modify the weight of an existing object and the speed of the object wouldn't change. If i drop a beach fall from building and time it, then drop the exact same beach ball from the same building but this time filled with water and not air it will reach the ground sooner. This disproves your theory.

Gravity pulls on objects with the same acceleration, so when you remove other forces acting on an object (the resistance of air, i.e. in a vacuum) then obejcts will fall at the same speed. That doesn't mean the acceleration is constant, that just means the force being applied is:

F = MA = M * 9.8(m/s)

The greater the mass, the more force being applied. This doesn't matter though, because it takes more force to accelerate a greater mass so they accelerate at a constant rate. If those same objects encounter an opposing force, though (i.e. wind resistance), that is dependant on surface area, not mass, then of 2 objects with the same surface area the one with more force (mass) will accelerate faster since it's ratio of force to mass is higher.

I dunno, you could always keep closing your eyes and screaming - that may make what you're saying more true.

I've responded to yet another one of these though... what's wrong with me?
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