Question

Two students want to determine if the acceleration of an object in free fall depends on the mass of the object. They conduct the following experiment to investigate this question: They drop a balled up sheet of paper (0.005 kg), a notebook (0.4 kg), and their physics book (5 kg) from a height of one meter. If air resistance is ignored, which of the following best predicts which object will experience the greatest acceleration?

Answer 1

All the objects experience the same acceleration

Step-by-step explanation:

According to Newton's law of universal gravitation, we have the gravitational force F given by the relation;

`F=G * (M_1 * m_(2))/(R^(2))`

Where;

G = The universal gravitational constant

M₁ = The mass of the Earth

m₂ = The mass of the object in the Earths gravitational field

R = The radius of the Earth

Therefore, we have;

`F= m_2 * a = G * (M_1 * m_(2))/(R^(2))`

Which gives;

`a = G * (M_1 )/(R^(2)) \ which \ is \ a \ constant = 9.80665 \ m/s^2, \ known \ as \ g, \ which \ is \ \\the \ (acceleration \ due \ to \ gravity)\\`Therefore, based on the above calculation, all three object will have the same acceleration due to gravity, g, when air resistance is ignored.