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Home Minds On Newton's Laws Mission NL11 Air Resistance Help Help 9

Mission NL11 Air Resistance

The Question

Which of the following free-body diagrams would be characteristic of an object which has reached terminal velocity?

Define Help

Definition of Terminal Speed:
Terminal speed (sometimes called terminal velocity) is the final speed to which an accelerating object (usually a falling object) can accelerate.

Think About It

As an object falls from an initial rest position, it speeds up. Air resistance forces depend directly upon an object's speed. This increase in speed causes the upward force of air resistance to increase. As force of air resistance continues to increase to greater and greater values, it eventually becomes equal to the downward force of gravity. At the point that the two individual forces are equal, the object is said to have reached a terminal velocity. With a balance of forces, the acceleration becomes 0 m/s/s, and the speed of the object is locked at its current speed - it is the terminal or final speed that the object will attain.

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