We’ve all dropped things before and watched them fall to the ground. You might have noticed that some things fall faster than other. Let’s experiment!
Gather some items that are safe to be dropped. Maybe a ball, sheet of paper, shoe, pencil, feather… We’ll also need a stopwatch or a timer that can be found on a phone.
Find a spot where it’s okay and safe to drop your items. Drop two items at the same time, from the same height. Then drop each item separately and track the time it takes for them to hit the ground. Which objects fall faster?
Further Your Learning
- Review the experiment and form a hypothesis for why certain objects fall faster than others.
- Take the experiment in a new direction by dropping objects of the same size, but with a different weight. Then choose the same weight, but different size. Discuss.
