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The terminal velocity of a falling body depends upon the drag forces encountered by the body throughout its fall. The drag forces will depend upon the shape of the body and is orientation with respect to the earth. Other factors affecting drag forces will be altitude, humidity and other variables that affect the density of the air.
Here's the math. It isn't hard.
Vt square root of (2mg/ρACd)
where Vt terminal velocity,m mass of the falling object,g gravitational acceleration,Cd drag coefficient,ρ density of the fluid the object is falling through, andA projected area of the object.
The projected area is also called the "cross-sectional area" where it's a silhouette or a "slice" across the "thickest" part of the falling object taken perpendicular to its orientation in free fall.
A link to the Wikipedia article from which part of the post is copied ('cause it's easy to cut and paste) is supplied.
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A 180 lb person jumps from 16 story building how fast do they fall?
32 feet per second per second is the standard acceleration.As the object accelerates (usually downwards due to gravity), the drag force acting on the object increases. At a particular speed, the drag force produced will be equal to the downward force, mostly the weight (mg), of the object. Eventually, it plummets at a constant speed called terminal velocity (also called settling velocity). Terminal velocity varies directly with the ratio of drag to weight. More drag means a lower terminal velocity, while increased weight means a higher terminal velocity. An object moving downward at greater than terminal velocity (for example because it was affected by a force downward or it fell from a thinner part of the atmosphere or it changed shape) will slow until it reaches the terminal velocity. For example, the terminal velocity of a skydiver in a free-fall position with a semi-closed parachute is about 195 km/h (120 mph or 55m/s).[1] This velocity is the asymptotic limiting value of the acceleration process, since the effective forces on the body more and more closely balance each other as the terminal velocity is approached. In this example, a speed of 50% of terminal velocity is reached after only about 3 seconds, while it takes 8 seconds to reach 90%, 15 seconds to reach 99% and so on. Higher speeds can be attained if the skydiver pulls in his limbs (see also freeflying). In this case, the terminal velocity increases to about 320 km/h (200 mph or 89 m/s),[1] which is also the maximum speed of the peregrine falcon diving on its prey.[2] Competition speed skydivers fly in the head down position reaching even higher speeds. The current world record is 614 mph (988 km/h) by Joseph Kittinger, set at high altitude where the lesser density of the atmosphere decreased drag.[1] An object falling on Earth will fall 9.80 meters per second faster every second (9.8 m/s²). The reason an object reaches a terminal velocity is that the drag force resisting motion is directly proportional to the square of its speed. At low speeds, the drag is much less than the gravitational force and so the object accelerates. As it accelerates, the drag increases, until it equals the weight. Drag also depends on the projected area. This is why things with a large projected area, such as parachutes, have a lower terminal velocity than small objects such as cannon balls.
Can velocity be 0 but speed not 0?
Speed and Velocity are two words that mean the same. You may mean, "Can Velocity be 0 but acceleration not 0". Yes, this occurs when a moving object is changing direction (say from moving forwards to moving backwards) or is just about to move or, at that very instant has just come to a halt. In all these cases, speed /velocity is zero but the body is accelerating. Don't forget, the word acceleration is also used when an object is decelerating (slowing down).
Sketch a distance-time graph for a body starting from rest how will you determine the speed of a body from this graph?
It is not possible to sketch anything using this browser. The speed of a body cannot be determined from a distance-time graph. The slope of the graph is a measure of the radial velocity - that is the speed directly towards or directly away from the starting point. However, there is absolutely no information of any motion in a transverse direction. Since motion in this direction cannot be assumed to be 0, the distance-time graph cannot be used to determine speed.
What is 32.2 ft per s2 converted to ft per s?
This is the standard expression for the ACCELERATION due to gravity. Acceleration is the change in speed per second. If there is no friction or air resistance then a body falling from rest will reach a speed of 32.2 fps after 1 second, after 2 secs it will be travelling at 64.4. fps, at 96.6 fps after 3 secs ....and so on. In Mechanics there is an expression for motion involving constant acceleration :- v = u + ft, where v = velocity after a period of time, u = initial velocity, f = acceleration and t = time. In the question, after 3 seconds this formula would produce :- v = 0 + 32.2 x 3 = 96.6 fps.
What is the formula for the acceleration of a free falling body?
A - 9.8m/s2
What causes a falling object to reach terminal velocity?
Its the air resistance that causes the free falling body to reach its terminal velocity
When the speed an object reaches the force of gravity is balanced by the force of air resistance called inertia?
This is called Terminal Velocity. Gravity pulling downwards matches the air resistance pushing upwards to cancel the acceleration out. Many people misunderstand this and believe that this means that the object falling is no longer moving, but it is speaking in terms of acceleration, not speed. So the acceleration from before terminal velocity was reached will still be in affect, but the object will be neither gaining or losing speed.
Are the direction of the velocity and acceleration of a falling body the same?
For the most part, yes; once at terminal velocity, there is no acceleration, so it has direction.
What is speed of terminal velocity?
For the Human Body, 124 mph (200 KPH).
What happpens to velocity as a drop distance increases relate this to the concept of terminal velocity?
A falling body initially falls at a rate of -9.8m/s2, the acceleration due to gravity. Because of the drag force of the air, which is an upward force that opposes the force of gravity, the body's acceleration will decrease as it continues falling. When the drag force equals the weight of the falling body, there will be no further acceleration, and the body will have reached terminal velocity.
When a falling body reaches its terminal velocity its acceleration is?
Terminal velocity means the object no longer accelerates; that means that all forces are in balance, the net force is zero.
What is absolute velocity is it the other name for the velocity of a free falling body when the net force of air resistance and gravity is zero?
yes. also called terminal velocity.
How would the terminal velocity of an object falling towards earth differ than the terminal velocity of the same object falling through water?
because water has higher viscosity than air so resisting the movement of the body in it more than air so decreasing the velocity
How does drag work?
Drag force, or the force of air friction for a falling body, increases with speed. A falling object will reach a speed at which the force of air friction will be equal to and opposite the force of gravity. At that point, the object will no longer accelerate. It's speed will remain constant, and we call that speed (and direction) its terminal velocity.
How does height affect the velocity of a falling body?
A falling object accelerates at a rate of 9.8 m/s2. That means that for every second that it is falling, its velocity increases by 9.8 m/s. The higher that the object is falling from, the longer it will have to speed up, thus the higher its velocity upon impact will be. (This is assuming that it does not reach terminal velocity, the velocity at which an object can no longer accelerate because it is travelling so fast that the drag force (air resistance) is equal to the force of gravity.)
When equals the foce of gravity on a falling object the object reaches terminal velocity?
Yes any other force such as viscous dragging force becomes equal to the weight of the falling object then the body would be moving with uniform velocity. Hence no more increase in the velocity as there is no net acceleration. And so the velocity is said to be terminal (recall terminus) velocity.
What is the terminal velocity of body in a freely falling system?
Assuming the object starts at rest, it is zero. However, if the object is thrown upward or downward, its inital velocity will not be zero.
