Goongyae said:Which would hit the ground first if dropped from a certain height onto the moon, where there is no air resistance? A wooden ball 1 cm in radius, or a lead ball 1 cm in radius?
Goongyae said:Answer: the lead ball would hit first.
The moon's acceleration toward the lead ball would be greater than it would be toward the wooden ball. Thus the lead ball and the moon would collide in a shorter time.
ashishsinghal said:Do you really need to go into so many considerations while solving a brainteaser?
Goongyae said:Answer: the lead ball would hit first.
The moon's acceleration toward the lead ball would be greater than it would be toward the wooden ball. Thus the lead ball and the moon would collide in a shorter time.
They don't have to be dropped from opposite sides. Any sufficiently large separation between the balls will result in the moon's acceleration vector pointing just a little bit more towards the lead ball than the wooden one. With a cow-shaped moon (i.e., perfectly spherical), you could drop the balls from arbitrarily close initial positions and "see" the lead ball land first.BobG said:Unless...
The two balls are dropped simultaneously from opposite sides of the Moon...
The main factor that determines which object will hit the ground first is the force of gravity. Objects with a greater mass will experience a greater force of gravity and therefore fall faster than objects with a smaller mass. Other factors that can affect the speed at which objects fall include air resistance, shape, and surface area.
According to the law of gravity, two objects with the same mass will hit the ground at the same time regardless of their shape. However, objects with different shapes may experience different levels of air resistance, which can affect their speed and the time it takes to hit the ground.
A feather falls slower than a brick because it has a larger surface area and experiences more air resistance. This air resistance counteracts the force of gravity, causing the feather to fall at a slower rate. In a vacuum, where there is no air resistance, both the feather and the brick would fall at the same rate.
No, an object dropped on the moon will not hit the ground at the same time as an object dropped on Earth. This is because the moon has less mass than Earth, meaning it has a weaker gravitational force. Objects will fall slower on the moon due to this weaker force, causing them to take longer to hit the ground.
According to the law of gravity, two objects with the same mass and no air resistance will hit the ground at the exact same time. However, in real-life situations, it is highly unlikely that two objects will have the exact same mass and encounter the exact same amount of air resistance, making it nearly impossible for them to hit the ground at the exact same time.