science buff question: two balls of equal volume and different density...

[silverpig]

Summary of answer:

Assuming equal shapes and all, the heavy ball will always hit sooner, although you will only notice it on very long drops or with very different masses.

 

[MrDudeMan]

the movie will be today...so check back in a few hours to get a link so you can see for yourself what happens

 

[spidey07]

Well what about the 5th force? There's another force besides gravity and wind resistance here.

that alone would make the denser object fall faster.

 

[Shivatron]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: Shivatron

Originally posted by: simms
Makes sense, but with different accelerations results in different times to reach terminal velocity. So one object will fall faster than the other because of your equatl a=g-r/m (if r/m is significant).

Bigger M = Smaller R/M = Bigger A = Faster time to terminal velocity. The faster to terminal velocity, the sooner the mass gets to the ground (for those of you who can't understand this... well... I don't know what to say!).

As an added advantage to the heavier mass, the heavier mass has a larger terminal velocity. See Dullard's link.

Tsk tsk tsk. And you were doing so well. Faster time to terminal velocity usually means the object reaches the ground SLOWER. Calculate how long a soap bubble takes to reach 99% of terminal velocity (it's somewhere around 1/10000 of a second). I can tell you now that a bowling ball will take much longer to reach 99% of terminal velocity.

Heh, okay, I can't argue with that. (All I was trying to point out is that faster acceleration will decrease time of flight given the maximum velocity is the same, but of course you raise an excellent point.)