You are in a vacuum chamber, and you drop a feather and a bowling ball (initially at rest) from a great height. Which will hit the ground first?

The key fact here is in free fall everything accelerates at the same rate. Acceleration is equal to 9.81 m/s2 (accleration of free fall). This means provided you drop both at the same height, and drop them from rest, they will travel to the ground together with the same acceleration and hit the ground at the same time. But this is not what happens in our usual exerience, so what is really going on? Well, if we were to do this experiement we'd find the feather takes a long time to reach the ground. This is due to air resistance or drag which is present on Earth (not in a vacuum of course, as we've removed all the air!). The molecules in the air collide with the feather slowing it down, which is why on Earth the feather would take a while to reach the ground, but in our vacuum, they reach the ground at the same time.

OT
Answered by Owen T. Physics tutor

7756 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

Resolving the forces for an object suspended on two strings.


A phone is knocked off a table 800cm of the ground. If the phone is 650g a) what is the gravational potential of the phone? b)what speed will the phone hit the floor at? c)How long will it take for the phone to hit the floor?


State Faraday's Law of electromagnetic induction, both qualitatively and quantitatively. How is Lenz's Law included in this? (4 marks)


A crane is attached to one end of a steel girder, and lifts that end into the air. When the cable attached to the end of the girder is at 20 degrees to the vertical, the tension is 6.5kN. Calculate the horizontal and vertical components of this force.


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2026 by IXL Learning