Drop a feather & bowling ball at the same time...?

Question

My idiot friend at work tried telling me that if you drop a feather and a bowling ball at the same time, they'll hit the ground at the same time... I told him that's the case on the moon, but not here on earth. Who's right? Thanx!

Answer 1

If you happen to live near the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (and probably a bunch of other science museums) you can see it happen.  For a long time they had a plastic cylinder with a feather and a heavy ball in it and you could push a button to suck the air out and push another to turn the cylinder end to end.  Sure enough, they fell at the same rate in the vacuum.

Answer 2

Your both right...

Objects of different mass do fall at the same speed, but air resistance hinders this fact. For example, if you drop a bowling ball and a feather at the same time on the Earth, obviously the bowling ball falls faster.

However, on the moon, when the astronauts dropped a feather and a bowling ball, they hit the ground at the same time.

It would seem that the bowling ball should fall faster since gravity is pulling on it with more force. But, with the more mass, comes more inertia, which meas it resists being pulled more than the feather. So, the feather is pulled less, but it resists less as well, so because of that, they will fall at the same time. The relationship between the force of pull and the object's inertial compensates exactly so that all objects fall at the same rate.

Answer 3

Actually, you can get the same effect on earth by dropping them both in vacuum.  The feather drops so much slower because of wind resistance.  However, that away the air (wind) and the only force acting on both would be gravity.

Answer 4

Of course you are. Why don't you try it and prove it to him?

Answer 5

your right but thats a rare case. if i dropped a bowling ball and a hair brush from the same height they would hit at the same time. in fact the only reason the feather wouldn't work is because the feather has so much more wind risistance, but with most objects it will work.

didn't anybody here know newtons laws? i dont pay attention in science and even i know that. look up newtons laws if you dont believe me.

Answer 6

You are.  

Answer 7

The thing that most people over look is the details. A bowling ball and a feather in a vacuum will hit the ground at the same time. We obviously don't have a vacuum on Earth due to our atmoshpere, so you have to factor in things like air resistance and surface area. Also, it is factually correct to say the objects will fall at the same rate of speed since gravity will effect both equally.