Final answer:
Falling objects accelerate at the same rate due to gravity, regardless of mass, as shown by Galileo. Projectile motion also shows uniform acceleration. Changes in gravity affect weight but not mass, influencing terminal velocity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The behavior of falling objects is governed by the acceleration due to gravity, which is constant under ideal conditions, meaning without the effects of air resistance and friction.
Galileo's experiments demonstrated that all objects fall at the same rate of acceleration when these external factors are negligible. Even when a ball is in projectile motion, it will fall at the same rate as an object in freefall, irrespective of its horizontal velocity. This illustrates that the rate of fall is unaffected by the mass of an object, allowing us to calculate motion using the kinematic equations. All objects on a frictionless incline will also accelerate at the same rate if the incline’s angle is constant, and this shows the uniformity of gravitational acceleration on all masses.
When considering changes in gravitational force, for example in space, an object's mass remains constant but its weight varies with the change in acceleration due to gravity (g). However, the object's terminal velocity or speed will change alongside modifications in gravitational strength.