What Did Aristotle Say About Heavy Objects Falling?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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It was in the nature of falling, said Aristotle,

that heavy objects seek their natural place faster than light ones — that heavy objects fall faster.

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Why did Aristotle think heavier objects fall faster?

Aristotle further believed that

objects fall at a speed that is proportional to their weight

. In other words, if you took a wooden object and a metal object of the same size and dropped them both, the heavier metal object would fall at a proportionally faster speed.

What did Aristotle believe affected the fall rate of an object?

Aristotle believed that

an object’s mass

affected the rate that it would hit the ground. Galileo argued that mass did not affect the rate that an object would hit the ground. time to reach the ground and why?

Why did people think heavier objects fall faster?

No, heavier objects fall as fast (or slow) as lighter objects, if we ignore the air

friction

. The air friction can make a difference, but in a rather complicated way. The gravitational acceleration for all objects is the same. 3) how dense the object is.

How did Aristotle explain why objects fall back to Earth?

So Aristotle argues that

the stone falls because it has a “nature within it” which causes its motion to its natural place which is the centre of the Earth

. Natural motion of the heavenly bodies, according to Aristotle, is circular. … Aristotle also believed that heavier objects fell more rapidly than lighter ones.

Why a heavy object does not fall faster than a light object?

Answer:

All objects fall on ground with constant acceleration

, called acceleration due to gravity (in the absence of air resistances). It is constant and does not depend upon the mass of an object. Hence, heavy objects do not fall faster than light objects.

Which scientist disproved Aristotle’s idea that heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects?

According to the story,

Galileo

discovered through this experiment that the objects fell with the same acceleration, proving his prediction true, while at the same time disproving Aristotle’s theory of gravity (which states that objects fall at speed proportional to their mass).

What did Galileo argue about falling objects?

Galileo Galilei—an Italian mathematician, scientist, and philosopher born in 1564—recognized that

in a vacuum

, all falling objects would accelerate at the same rate regardless of their size, shape, or mass. He arrived at that conclusion after extensive thought experiments and real-world investigations.

Did Aristotle know about acceleration?

Aristotle’s dynamics. … Aristotle had no mathematical machinery for dealing with the concept of acceleration, so

he analysed only states of uniform velocity

. He did not analyse frictionless uniform motion because such motion is not seen in the world.

Why do bigger objects fall slower?

Acceleration of Falling Objects

Heavier things have a greater gravitational force AND

heavier things have a lower acceleration

. It turns out that these two effects exactly cancel to make falling objects have the same acceleration regardless of mass.

Do heavier objects go downhill faster?

There will be a resultant force which will be proportional to the mass of the object. Hence an object with greater mass feels greater force than the other one. So even if the slope is same for both objects, a

massive object moves faster through the slope

than a less mass object.

Who proved that all falling objects fall with uniform acceleration?

The remarkable observation that all free falling objects fall with the same acceleration was first proposed by

Galileo Galilei

nearly 400 years ago. Galileo conducted experiments using a ball on an inclined plane to determine the relationship between the time and distance traveled.

Why do heavier objects fall faster Reddit?

The number one reason is that air resistance is a function of the object’s velocity as well, so the faster the

object moves the more air resistance

.

Which falls first the heavier or lighter object defend your answer?

In other words, if two objects are the same size but one is heavier, the

heavier one

has greater density than the lighter object. Therefore, when both objects are dropped from the same height and at the same time, the heavier object should hit the ground before the lighter one.

Why do all objects have a tendency to fall towards the earth?

All objects have a tendency to fall towards the earth when

thrown up due to the influence of gravity

. The gravitational force acts upon the body and it tends to fall towards the earth. The force of attraction between two bodies that has mass.

What affects the speed of a falling object?

The force of gravity pulls down on all objects here on earth, If an object is allowed to fall, it accelerated downwards. One of the main factors of haw a fast an object falls is

its shape size and weight

. Many factors could affect the time that the paper takes to hit the floor, Surface area shape mass and gravity.

Why do objects of different mass fall at the same time?

Because

Earth gives everything the exact same acceleration

, objects with different masses will still hit the ground at the same time if they are dropped from the same height.

How did Galileo prove that all objects fall at the same rate?

Maybe the most famous scientific experiment is Galileo Galilei’s dropping objects from the leaning tower of Pisa in order to prove that all objects fall at the same rate, whatever their mass. … Galileo used inclined planes for his experiment to slow the

acceleration

enough so that the elapsed time could be measured.

Why is Aristotelian physics wrong?

Well, not all of Aristotle’s theories were “wrong.” Aristotle’s theories in physics were definitely wrong for many different reasons (e.g. water isn’t an element but a compound, all objects of varying

size fall at a same rate

, gravity is responsible for objects falling rather than their purpose to remain on earth, and …

How did Galileo’s ideas on falling objects differ from Aristotle’s?

Aristotle says that

the heavier things are, the quicker they will fall

, whereas Galileo felt that the mass of an object made no difference to the speed at which it fell. Year 5 experimented to find out who was right by dropping things of the same weight but different shape and the same shape by different weights.

How fast do falling objects accelerate on Earth?

It is also true that a free falling (no air resistance) object falls with an acceleration of

9.8 m/s

2


—but it’s still just the gravitational field. It doesn’t matter what object you put near the surface of the Earth, the gravitational field due to the Earth is constant and pointing towards the center of the Earth.

How did Aristotle differentiate terrestrial and celestial motion?

He held that the heavens were perfect, regular and unchanging. Unlike the terrestrial realm, which was the site of constant change,

the celestial realm never changed

. That’s not to say there was no motion in the celestial realm – of course Aristotle knew that celestial bodies move across the sky.

How did Isaac Newton revises Aristotle’s ideas?

Newton’s physics replaced that of Aristotle. In effect, Newton replaced Aristotle. Finally, physics again had

laws

of physics that made sense, that had the power to explain how the world worked the way it did.

Do heavier objects fall faster Quora?

Heavier objects do not always fall faster than lighter objects. Air resistance (aerodynamic drag) and

different

densities of the falling objects, as well as any atmosphere involved, determine the speed of a fall.

Why do heavier objects travel further?

The heavy object will feel small changes to its speed (its acceleration is close to zero), while the light object will slow down a lot (its acceleration is a large negative number). In the end, the heavy object will travel farther, since

it was less affected by air resistance

.

Do heavier objects fall faster in water?

Given two objects of the same size but of different materials,

the heavier (denser) object will fall faster

because the drag and buoyancy forces will be the same for both, but the gravitational force will be greater for the heavier object.

Does being heavier make you ski faster?

Friction between ski and snow is very small, so the main drag on speed is the wall of air in front of the skier. … Other factors being equal,

a heavier skier is faster than a lighter one because his air resistance is lower

. So a skier can go faster by increasing mass–becoming as heavy as possible for his frame.

Why do objects go faster on steeper slopes?

The

longer you feel that push from gravity

, the faster it makes you go. Finally, you know that the steeper the hill, the faster you go. … Specifically, gravity increases a falling object’s velocity by 9.8 meters per second (m/s) with every passing second.

Does acceleration increase in free fall?

Freefall is a special case of motion

with constant acceleration

, because acceleration due to gravity is always constant and downward. This is true even when an object is thrown upward or has zero velocity. … Acceleration from gravity is always constant and downward, but the direction and magnitude of velocity change.

Do objects fall at the same speed Reddit?


If two objects of differing sizes are dropped at the same time

, they fall at the same rate, because while the larger object has a greater gravitional force acting on it, it also has a greater resistance to that force.

How does mass affect the speed of an object?


Mass doesn’t affect speed directly

. It determines how quickly an object can change speed (accelerate) under the action of a given force. Lighter objects need less time to change speed by a given amount under a given force.

What falls faster an elephant or a mouse?

The

elephant will fall faster than the mouse

because of the ratio of weight to surface area. The mouse offers much more wind resistance. The elephant will average about 260 feet per second as opposed the mouse doing 25 feet per second.

Do objects of higher mass fall faster?

More massive

objects will only fall faster if there is

an appreciable amount of air resistance present. … Thus, the greater force on more massive objects is offset by the inverse influence of greater mass. Subsequently, all objects free fall at the same rate of acceleration, regardless of their mass.

David Evans
Author
David Evans
David is a seasoned automotive enthusiast. He is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering and has a passion for all things related to cars and vehicles. With his extensive knowledge of cars and other vehicles, David is an authority in the industry.