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Home Minds On Newton's Laws Mission NL10 Free Fall Acceleration Help Help 5

Mission NL10 Free Fall Acceleration

The Question

The value of g is 9.8 m/s/s. 'g' stands for ...

Define Help

Definition of the Acceleration of Gravity:
The acceleration of gravity is the acceleration value an object would have if acted upon solely by the force of gravity. On Earth, it is a constant value of 9.8 m/s/s.

Don't be Fooled

The English language has an overwhelming number of words. Because of the enormous array of words that can be chosen from to make a sentence, we can write and speak with great precision. As such, we can use a phrase like acceleration of gravity and mean something different than the phrase force of gravity. The moment a student begins to shorten the phrase acceleration of gravity to gravity is the moment that great difficulties begin to arise. In the mind of the student, the acceleration of gravity is reduced to gravity and the force of gravity is reduced to gravity and Missions NL5 and NL10 become enormously difficult.
 
But don't be fooled! The acceleration of gravity is an acceleration value; it is the acceleration of an object that is acted upon solely by the force of gravity. It is represented by the symbol g and has a value of 9.8 m/s/s. The acceleration of gravity should not be confused with the force of gravity. The force of gravity is a force - a push or pull - that acts upon an object due to Earth's attraction of it. The force of gravity is sometimes referred to as the weight of the object. It is measured in Newtons and is often represented by the symbol Fgrav.

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