Let’s see how you did! If you didn’t get a few of these, don’t let it stress you out – it just means you need to play with more experiments in this area. We’re all works in progress, and we have our entire lifetime to puzzle together the mysteries of the universe!
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Answers:
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The terminal velocity is figured out from this equation:
where
Vt = terminal velocity
m = mass of the falling object
g = acceleration due to gravity
Cd = drag coefficient
ρ = density of the fluid through which the object is falling
A = projected area of the object
So the terminal velocity for a tennis ball:
m = 57 grams = 0.057 kg (this is the mass, not the weight, of the tennis ball)
g = 9.81 m/s2 (this is the same value for all objects falling to the Earth)
Cd = 0.50 (you need to figure this out for each particular object)
ρ = 1.2 kg / m3 (this is the density of air at standard temperature)
A = (3.14)(0.067 m)2 = 0.0141 m2 (this is the area that the wind sees)
Terminal velocity for a tennis ball = 11.5 m/s (meters per second) = 25.7 mph (miles per hour)
Can you tell me how to calculate the terminal velocity of an object please?
Thanks,
Kurt