Terminal Velocity
Terminal Velocity
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All objects on Earth experience GRAVITATIONAL ATTRACTION towards the centre of the planet. This means when an object is in FREE FALL, it moves DOWNWARDS.
NEAR the surface of the Earth, you can assume ALL objects fall with an acceleration of 9.8m/s2.
This assumption can be made when you assume there is NO DRAG (AIR RESISTANCE), meaning there is a CONSTANT acceleration.
In real life however, when an object moves through a liquid or gas, there IS a DRAG FORCE present which affects the motion.
Drag is affected by the SPEED of the object and its SHAPE.
You can REDUCE the drag experienced by a moving object by:
1. DECREASING the SPEED of the object.
2. Making the object MORE STREAMLINED.
Consider a skydiver jumping out of a plane. Initially, the only force acting on him is WEIGHT due to gravity. This causes him to ACCELERATE downwards.
As the skydiver ACCELERATES, the speed INCREASES which means the DRAG also INCREASES.
This means the RESULTANT FORCE on the skydiver DECREASES so the ACCELERATION also DECREASES.
The drag force keeps INCREASING until it becomes EQUAL to the weight.
At this point, the resultant force is ZERO which means there is NO ACCELERATION and the skydiver travels at a CONSTANT SPEED (Newton’s 1st Law). This speed is known as the TERMINAL VELOCITY and is the MAXIMUM SPEED the skydiver reaches.
All objects on Earth experience GRAVITATIONAL ATTRACTION towards the centre of the planet. This means when an object is in FREE FALL, it moves DOWNWARDS.
NEAR the surface of the Earth, you can assume ALL objects fall with an acceleration of 9.8m/s2.
This assumption can be made when you assume there is NO DRAG (AIR RESISTANCE), meaning there is a CONSTANT acceleration.
In real life however, when an object moves through a liquid or gas, there IS a DRAG FORCE present which affects the motion.
Drag is affected by the SPEED of the object and its SHAPE.
You can REDUCE the drag experienced by a moving object by:
1. DECREASING the SPEED of the object.
2. Making the object MORE STREAMLINED.
Consider a skydiver jumping out of a plane. Initially, the only force acting on him is WEIGHT due to gravity. This causes him to ACCELERATE downwards.
As the skydiver ACCELERATES, the speed INCREASES which means the DRAG also INCREASES.
This means the RESULTANT FORCE on the skydiver DECREASES so the ACCELERATION also DECREASES.
The drag force keeps INCREASING until it becomes EQUAL to the weight.
At this point, the resultant force is ZERO which means there is NO ACCELERATION and the skydiver travels at a CONSTANT SPEED (Newton’s 1st Law). This speed is known as the TERMINAL VELOCITY and is the MAXIMUM SPEED the skydiver reaches.
