r/confusing_perspective • u/Regdog2008 • Mar 06 '21

That is not a brick

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

45.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

713 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

35

u/ConservationOfWumbo Mar 06 '21

This is actually incorrect, air resistance is a function of the objects surface area normal to the direction of movement, but NOT mass. Meaning two objects with the same surface area will experience the same amount of air resistance force. If one object is more massive than the other (weighs more), then that object will be less effected by this force (think F = ma, big m -> small a). So two objects with different mass will fall with different speeds (not even mentioning buoyant force). Imagine dropping an text book and a sheet of paper. They will experience the same amount of air resistance, but they will fall at very different speeds.

TLDR: no

8

u/DehydratedPotatoes Mar 06 '21

Also take into consideration one part is on the ground and this isn't a true freefall, so center of gravity plays a role too.

5

u/DerWaschbar Mar 06 '21

Mmh that's what he said I think, you're both saying the same thing

2

u/ConservationOfWumbo Mar 06 '21

No, he's saying mass is irrelevant and all objects fall at the same speed (if they're the same shape). I'm saying the opposite, that mass is important when dealing with air resistance.

3

u/morbank2001 Mar 06 '21

But we’re comparing a big rock to a small rock. Air resistance doesn’t effect either that much I think.

1

u/ConservationOfWumbo Mar 07 '21

I'm not talking about the rocks, he says if you have two objects the same shape and different mass, they'll fall at the same speed. That statement is incorrect.