Skip to Content Go to sign in Skip to Primary Navigation Skip to Secondary Navigation Skip to Page Navigation Skip to Header Navigation Skip to Footer Navigation Read more about accessability options and our navigation

Physics Classroom is making strides to make our site accessible to everyone. Our site contains 6 navigation areas. The Primary, Secondary, and Page Level navigations have a screen reader version of their nav structure that allows using the left and right keys to navigate sibling navigation items, and up or down keys to navigate parent or child navigation items. The others can be navigated using tabs. The Primary Navigation handles the first 2 levels of site pages. The Secondary (which is not always available) handles the 3rd and 4th level of structure. The Page level navigation allows you to navigate the current page's headings quickly. The Header Navigation contains the Light/Dark Mode toggle, Search, Notifications and account login. The Breadcrumb Navigation contains the breadcrumb of the current page. If the current page has a breadcrumb, you can get to it by skipping to the content and tabbing in reverse (shift plus tab). The Footer Navigation contains links such as Privacy, Contact, about and terms. Some resources contain an Audio Player that can be activated by holding down the T key for 3 seconds, and then using K to pause and resume. While not every area of Physics Classroom is usable purely from keyboard and screen reader, we are committed to continue work on making this possible. If you have questions or need additional help, please use this link to contact us.

Return to screen reader navigation
Home Minds On Newton's Laws Mission NL11 Air Resistance Help Help 1

Mission NL11 Air Resistance

The Question

When under the influence of air resistance, ...

Don't be Fooled

You may have learned that all objects free fall at the same rate of acceleration, regardless of their mass. But don't be fooled! While this is certainly a true statement, it has little to do with this question. Free fall is the state of an object in which the only forces of influence are gravity. Free fall assumes negligible air resistance. This question pertains to situations in which air resistance is a factor. As such, this is not a free fall question.

Hands On Time

Try it. Try it? Yes - do an experiment. Go to the kitchen and find some coffee filters or napkins. (You might ask your parents' permission first.) Drop one coffee filter and a pack of 10 identical coffee filters from the same height at the same time and in the same manner. Coffee filters fall with significant air resistance. Which falls faster - the single filter or the more massive 10-pack of filters? If coffee filters are not available, try the mini-experiment with a single napkin vs. a 10-pack of napkins. Or if napkins are not available, drop a single section from Friday's local newspaper and the entire Sunday section of the local newspaper.
 
Of course, like any good science investigation, you will have to take caution to control variables. The shape or profileof the filters (or napkins or newspaper) as they fall through the air will have to be identical.

Hot Link