Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Free Fall and Air Resistance
This lesson in high school physics on Newton's Second Law of Motion provides a discussion of free fall and air resistance, and answers, "Why do objects which encounter air resistance ultimately reach a terminal velocity?" and "In...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Elephant & Feather (Free Fall)
A demonstration involving an elephant and a feather and explanation of why all objects maintain the same acceleration in the state of free fall without any air resistance.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: 1 D Kinematics: How Fast? And How Far?
Students understand the physics of a free falling object through these illustrated example problems.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Falling Down
In this activity, students will determine the average speed of a falling object. They will observe whether or not changing the mass and keeping the same shape have an effect on the average speed of the object.
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Free Fall Constants for Earth
When you work with equations that show position, velocity, acceleration of objects that are flying or falling through the air, you will be using the constant that is the acceleration due to gravity. View formulas, explanations, and...
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Falling Objects
In this activity, Students can use a Motion Detector to measure distance and velocity.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Measuring G
Using the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit, students construct experiments to measure the time it takes a free falling body to travel a specified distance. Students use the touch sensor, rotational sensor, and the NXT brick to measure the time of...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Linear Motion
A learning module where students gain an understanding of the relationships between the different kinds of motion. Students will be able to explain free-fall motion and use kinematics equations to calculate problems involving falling...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: How Do Things Fall?
Students learn more about forces by examining the force of gravitational attraction. They observe how objects fall and measure the force of gravitational attraction upon objects.
NASA
Nasa: The Way Things Fall
This site from NASA compares free falling motion to falling with air resistance. Discusses Galileo's experiment. Explains why we believe all objects free fall with the same acceleration.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Air Resistance
Use the TI-89 to investigate the effect of air resistance on a free-falling object. Examples in the activity use calculator screenprints and keystroke instructions to demonstrate the use of the calculator to solve these problems....
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Physical Science: Acceleration Due to Gravity
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Acceleration due to gravity and why falling objects with different masses accelerate at the same rate.
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Was Galileo Right?
Investigate the effect of gravity on objects of various mass during free fall. Predict what the position-time and velocity-time graphs will look like. Compare graphs for light and heavy objects.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Kinematics Section Summary
This is a summary of the main topics for AP Physics Chapter 2 Kinematics. These include Displacement; Vectors, Scalars, and Coordinate Systems; Time, Velocity, and Speed; Acceleration; Motion Equations for Constant Acceleration in One...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: 1 D Kinematics: The Big Misconception
An introduction to the ideas behind the misconception and misunderstanding of why all objects accelerate at the same rate. This explanation involves the concepts of force and mass.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Freefall Review
Review the key concepts and skills for acceleration due to gravity, including analyzing motion of objects in freefall.
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: Elephant and Feather: Air Resistance
The concept of air resistance is discussed in terms of why a heavier object falls faster than a lighter object when both dropped from the same height. In this discussion and animation, an elephant and feather are used as examples.
Concord Consortium
Concord Consortium: Stem Resources: Was Galileo Right?
Do heavier and lighter objects fall at the same rate? Galileo hypothesized that objects fall at the same rate regardless of their mass. Complete this module to find out if Galileo was right by comparing position-time and velocity-time...
Physics Aviary
Physics Aviary: Pvc Freefall
This lab was designed to give students practice collecting and analyzing data for the PVC Freefall Lab. Masses are dropped from different heights and the speed of the object as it passes through a photogate is calculated. The...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: 1 D Kinematics: Acceleration of Gravity
The practice problems and illustrated examples in this tutorial help students understand the acceleration of gravity. The 'Value of g' widget the tutorial refers to can be found in the Interactives section (link is in side-bar) under...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: 1 D Kinematics: Acceleration
Explore illustrated examples and try some practice acceleration problems to better understand this vector quantity in physics.
NASA
Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics
This site from NASA uses a colorful graphic to illustrate why objects reach terminal velocity. Provides equation for the terminal velocity of an object. Graphic is accompanied by a simple explanation.
Physics World
Physics World: Contextual Physics in Ocean Park
After downloading the "Motion Video Analysis" software, users can collect data about moving object's position from digital movie clips. This collection of data will allow them to plot motion graphs and draw conclusions about physics in...
NASA
Nasa: Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics
Includes exhaustive information and a wealth of activities pertaining to aerodynamics and the physics of flight.