If you jump out of an airplane, how fast would you fall? What’s the greatest speed you would reach? In a moment, we’re going to find out, but first let’s take a look at objects that are allowed to fall under the influence of just gravity. There are two important things to keep in mind for free falling objects. First, the object doesn’t experience air resistance. Second, the acceleration of the object is a constant value of 9.8 m/s2 or 32.2 ft/s2.
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6 Responses to “Free Fall and the Acceleration of Gravity”

  1. You’ll want to find a method that works for you. Some people use a composition book to keep track of equations. Others save them in a file on the computer. Others use 3×5 note cards. But you’ll also find that, as you practice, you’ll begin to memorize some of them!

  2. How do you record your equations for reference? Do you keep them in a specific equations book?

  3. You can solve this with the information provided. Remember that when the ball reaches its maximum height, its final velocity is 0. Also, since the height is given in feet, be sure to use 32 ft/s2 for gravitational acceleration (the variable “a”).

  4. trwhitman says:

    Hello Mrs. Aurora. I have been working on the problems at the end of the forever falling worksheet. The second problem asks me to find the initial velocity of a ball thrown to a maximum height of 24.2 ft. I have tried to solve it using some of the four kinematic equations but I cannot seem to get the right answer. It seems like I need to be given another variable in order to solve the equation. Is this true or is it possible to solve the equation with only the variables given?

  5. Oh dear – you’re right! I am uploading a replacement video right now! 🙂 Sorry about that!!

  6. Rosalind Hitchcock says:

    Quick note/errata: the “kinematics equations” lecture video, which we watched a few sections back, appears to be appended to the end of this video (Free Fall and the Acceleration of Gravity), starting at time 17:12. As far as we can tell, that content is identical to the content in the earlier video. We’re trying to figure out if that’s significant/intentional, or just a video editing glitch?