Lucretius, writing in 50 BCE:
Whatever falls through water or thin air, the rate Of speed at which it falls must be related to its weight, Because the substance of water and the nature of thin air Do not resist all objects equally, but give way faster To heavier objects, overcome, while on the other hand Empty void cannot at any part or time withstand Any object, but it must continually heed Its nature and give way, so all things fall at equal speed, Even though of differing weights, through the still void.
- De Rerum Natura book 2 lines 230-239
I was literally just writing about him nailing survival of the fittest too.
He’s still arguing that heavy objects would fall faster when dropped anywhere on Earth, though, specifically bringing up air resistance as the reason. His argument is that they would fall at the same rate in a vacuum.
But that’s true, isn’t it? Putting aside volume and shape.
He’s close, but not quite there. Air resistance slows things, and in a vacuum all things will fall at the same rate, yes. But, weight has zero impact on the rate an object falls through the atmosphere. Air resistance affects things based on their shape and permeability. He’s still saying that a heavier object will fall faster in atmosphere, all other things being equal, which is false.
He clearly knows air resistance is a thing, he just doesn’t understand how it works.
But it does affect the downward force acting on the object. Given two objects of the same shape but with different masses, one will indeed fall slower than the other. This is because the ratio of weight to surface area differs a lot between the two. Here’s a calculator from NASA you can play with, and a relevant passage from the same page:
If we have two objects with the same area and drag coefficient, like two identically sized spheres, the lighter object falls slower. This seems to contradict the findings of Galileo that all free-falling objects fall at the same rate with equal air resistance. But Galileo’s principle only applies in a vacuum, where there is NO air resistance and drag is equal to zero.
https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics/termvel/
A ping-pong ball sized lead shot and a ping-pong ball both fall at the same rate though air?
That doesn’t sound right.
That’s because there’s more than just weight that’s different there
Don’t leave dry sarcasm on the Internet without the requisite sarcasm mark, lol, I ain’t gonna removed out and add it now tho
If all things are equal except for mass. Then the object of higher mass will fall faster.
Size and shape are the same. Mass is different. What else?
Hi. Physicist here. You are absolutely wrong. The mass of an object does not affect the magnitude of force of air resistance which acts upon a falling object. But the acceleration that object will have is given by Newton’s second law as Force divided by mass. So a heavy and a light ball with the same shape will experience the same air resistance, but the heavy ball will “care less” and thus fall faster.
Makes sense, why test it?
Excuse me, I have to get back to wiping my ass with the communal sponge-on-a-stick.
Don’t forget your lead cookware and lead infused wine!
Makes everything sweeter. And the mental instability is less of a hindrance in times when people were regularly crucified.
