What is Free Fall Class 9
The falling of an object from a height towards the earth under the gravitational force of the earth (with no other forces acting on it) is called free fall. And such an object is called a freely falling body (or ‘freely falling object’). So, whenever a body (or object) falls towards the earth on its own, we say that it is under free fall or that it is a freely falling body (or freely falling object).
Example of free fall: When a bungee jumper falls down only under the gravitational force of the Earth, he is said to be in free fall (or falling freely towards the Earth).
what is the acceleration of free fall class 9
Acceleration due to gravity – When an object is dropped from some height, its velocity increases at a constant rate. In other words, when an object is dropped from some height, a uniform acceleration is produced in it by the gravitational pull of the earth and this acceleration does not depend on the mass of the falling object.
The uniform acceleration produced in a freely falling body due to the gravitational force of the earth is known as acceleration due to gravity and it is denoted by the letter g.
Acceleration of an object falling freely towards the earth does not depend on the mass of the object
Galileo dropped two stones of different masses from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa and found that they hit the ground at the same time. From this observation, Galileo concluded that the acceleration of an object falling freely toward the Earth does not depend on the mass of the object. During free fall, the heavier objects as well as the lighter objects accelerate at the same rate.
The value of g does not depend on the mass of the body. The value of g changes slightly from place to place but for most of the purposes, it is taken as 9.8 m/s2. Thus, the acceleration due to gravity, g = 9.8 m/s2.
