Free Fall

Everything falls the same way

An interactive lesson with 8 steps, about 7 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Without air resistance, everything falls with acceleration $g \approx 9.8$ m/s² downward.
• Dropped from rest: $v = gt$ and $\Delta y = \tfrac12 g t^2$.
• Thrown upward, an object returns with the same speed it was thrown at.

Steps

1. Heavy vs. light
2. g = 9.8 m/s²
3. Speed after 3 seconds
4. Distance after 3 seconds
5. Galileo’s odd numbers
6. How deep is the well?
7. Up and down
8. How high?