Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Free Fall Video
Please watch this video for Monday. This should help clear up some common misconceptions!
Questions:
1) What questions do you have about the acceleration due to gravity works (in this case free fall)?
2) How would these objects fall on mars? What about in space with no other bodies nearby?
3) A lot of the people questioned in the video have taken a year of physics. Why do you think their misconceptions persist?
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The objects would still land at the same time but they would take longer to reach the ground because Mars' mass is smaller than Earth's mass. If they were in space with no other objects around they would just stay still.
ReplyDeleteI think these misconceptions occur because it seems like it would be common sense that something that weighs more will fall faster. When in reality that is not the case.
1) This question may be super elementary, but does gravity effect force? If you dropped the basketball and the medicine ball, from the same height, onto some sand, the medicine ball would leave a bigger crater, cause it is heavier and has more force. But will the crater be the same from any height? Or does a higher height means gravity makes the force larger? (...wow that sounds confusing.)
ReplyDelete2) In space the objects wouldn't fall, because there is no gravity to make them fall. On Mars, I'm assuming it would just take them awhile to hit the ground because the gravity is less than it is on Earth
3) Because common sense and physics aren't that good of friends. In order to understand science, you need to look outside of the box, because it isn't supposed to make sense from a normal point of view, but from a science perspective it all makes sense.
1) I want to know more about what inertia is. Is there a formula to compare resistance, mass, and gravity? How fast are the balls speeding up? I think acceleration is the average speed, but is there a formula to measure how fast they speed up? If I dropped the two balls from airplane level, how much faster would they be moving when they hit the ground than when I first drop them?
ReplyDelete2) Neither would move in space. For Mars, I honestly don't know. I think they would land at the same time again on Mars. Even though the gravity would not be as strong, I think the proportion of resistance and force would still be the same. Again, I don't know, but that's my guess.
3) I think the misconceptions persist because the misconceptions make sense to us. It's like the phrase, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall." We tend to think that harder also means faster, so the bigger they are the faster they fall.
1. I still have some questions about the forces acting upon the balls; I understand that the gravitational force acting on both balls is different, and that the force is equivalent to mass, but exactly why does this occur? I am still confused on the exact phenomenon.
ReplyDelete2. I don't think that either of these objects would fall with no other objects around them in space, but they would in and of themselves have gravity, though probably not enough to affect either object significantly. As for mars, the two balls would fall at the same rate, though this rate would be slower because the gravitational pull of mars is less than that of earth.
3. I like what mythesprite said about our misconceptions persisting because they make sense to us. Personally, I think that we might understand these concepts when they are initially presented to us in class, but over time we tend to overgeneralize concepts that we previously learned.
With the explanation at the end of the video on the science behind the experiment made it very clear. I researched inertia but I would like to know more about it. Like exactly how is created? And what affect would it have on an object colliding with another in space?
ReplyDeleteIf the two objects were alone in space with no other bodies I would not expect them to move at all. If the experiment was done on mars I would expect the objects to stay consistent with the experiment on earth and fall at the same speed but the rates would be slower due to the differences in gravity between the planets.
I feel the misconseptions persist because it seems like it would make sense and generally on the spot it is hard for someone to recall exact formulas from a class, but the main reason would be the fact that it almost seems like common sense.
1) If the objects were dropped from a higher height, would the heavier/denser object hit first as it would start to acclerate faster after overcoming inertia?
ReplyDelete2) I would expect the objects to fall in the same manner on Mars after adjusting for the change in gravity.
With both objects in space with no other bodies nearby then both objects should remain still.
3) Misconceptions still exist because we are first taught that heavy objects do fall faster then lighter objects. Though science proves this teaching to be false, once we have been taught something that makes sense to us and that a majority of others believe, we have a tendency to stay with the majority rather then what is true.
1. I have a general idea of what inertia is. In order to better understand the concept, a clearer description/ demonstration would be helpful.
ReplyDelete2. On Mars, the balls would still land at the same time. However the lower force of gravity on Mars would cause the balls to fall at a slower rate. In space the balls would not fall due to the lack of gravity. The balls would remain stationary.
3. I think the misconceptions exist because the concept has been generalized to the point where just the basic ideas are taught and simplest and sometimes most obvious conclusions are made.
1.) Will the object with more mass eventually fall faster than the lighter object, if given enough height to accelerate?
ReplyDelete2.) The objects on mars would still hit the ground at the same time, but the acceleration would be less, because the force of gravity is weaker on Mars in comparison to Earth.
3.) I think the misconceptions persist because it's easier to accept the simpler answer as the truth. It makes more sense that the heavier object would fall faster, and that's why people believe that it does.
3) A lot of the people questioned in the video have taken a year of physics. Why do you think their misconceptions persist?
ReplyDelete1. I have questions about the gravitational force and how it works so that both balls hit the ground at the same time, you would think the heavier ball would hit the ground faster.
2. I would think if you were to drop the balls on mars they would still hit the ground at the same time.
3. I think the misconceptions persist because in most cases the heavier the object the faster it hits the ground, we sometimes forget all we've learned beyond that.
1. I wonder about the gravitational forces of the basketball and medicine ball if they were thrown at each other in space, and how this would be impacted by various objects that could be near.
ReplyDelete2. I'm inclined to agree about the Mars answers given by my classmates; the objects would land at the same time. I'm not so inclined to agree about how these objects would act in space. According to the "Cartoon Guide to Physics" page 3: "All the universe is in motion" meaning nothing is completely still within our universe as we know it. Although on Page 25 there is some mention about objects at rest tending to stay at rest and an apple floating without gravity. I'm inclined to believe that there is gravitational forces acting in one way or another throughout our universe. I'm also inclined to think that it would be really difficult to "release" any kind of object in the vacuum of space without some kind of energy exchange creating motion of the objects released.
3. I can only guess as to why inertia is a difficult concept for people to remember in this vignette. Maybe it's because it's difficult to visualize the concept of a tendency?
@ all
ReplyDeleteInertia is a weird one. Currently there isn't a single theory that is agreed upon as to the source of inertia. That means it's still being argued about!!!