Is it possible to break an object's terminal velocity?

Question

For those of you who don't know, terminal velocity, is the max speed of which an object can move at. So for example, you drop a bowling ball from an airplane and it continues to fall to the ground; that's it's terminal velocity and it can't go any faster...Or can it? Is it possible to make an already maxed speed moving object go faster?

Answer 1

You are looking at a downward moving object as having "maxed out speed", and that is the problem.

So here's the deal: a falling object experiences an acceleration proportional to its mass times the acceleration of gravity (g), which is ~9.8 m/s^2 near the surface of the Earth.  

When released from rest, an object will continue to accelerate downward unless there's some resistive force (air resistance) pushing back up on it.  Eventually, the two forces are equal in opposite directions, and you have no more downward acceleration.  No more downward acceleration means you've reached your maximum velocity (or terminal velocity), and you will just continue downward at the same speed.

Keeping that approach in mind, it's easy to see that any additional downward force other than gravity can accelerate you past the point of terminal velocity.  

For instance, if you were to drop an ant from a great height, it would reach terminal velocity rather quickly (small mass), but if you were to somehow push on it as it were falling, it would accelerate past its terminal velocity.  If you were to remove the pushing force, it would be accelerated in the upward direction by the ever-present resistive force of air pushing up on it, until it reaches its terminal velocity again.

Answer 2

terminal velocity is cause be air resistance.  take away air, be in a vacuum and the object will continue to gain speed

Answer 3

Terminal velocity depends on a number of factors - assuming the fluid surrounding the object to remain constant in density/ pressure/ temperature the physical factors will relate to the falling object.

Its surface area is the main limiting factor but the surface texture will also affect the rate of fall - so if the bowling ball is fixed in shape /size then it can still be polished, oiled etc to make the airflow smoother and so increase its terminal velocuty.