FREE FALL IN VACUUM AND IN THE AIR

Jan Benacka, Slovakia

0
j y

Vacuum
The motion equation is
dv
F  mg  ma  mg  a  g   g , v(0) = 0,  y(0) = 0, (1)
dt
where m is the mass, v is the speed of the body, and t is time.
The solution is
dv  gdt  v  g  dt  v  gt  c  0  g 0  c  c  0  v  gt . (3)
Consequently
dy 1 1 1
v  gt   gt  y  g  tdt  y  gt 2  c  0  g 0  c  c  0  y  gt 2 . (4)
dt 2 2 2
Functions v  t  and y  t  do not depend on mass m.

Air
The drag is
1
FD  CAv 2 ,
2
where C is the drag coefficient, A  is the maximum projected area,  is the air density.
The motion equation is
dv 1 dv
m  mg  CSρv v 2   g  Av 2 , v(0) = 0,  y(0) = 0, (6)
dt 2 dt
CA
where K  . (7)
2m
The solution is
dv dv dv 1 g Av
dt
 g  Av 2 
g  Av 2
 dt   g  Av 2
  dt  
2 Ag
ln
g Av
 t  c.

It holds from v 0   0 that c = 0, so

g 1  e 2 t  e t
 
gA
g et gA gA
g
v   tanh t gA . (8)
A 1  e  2t gA
A et gA
e t gA
A

Consequently
 
1 cosh t gA    d t  1 lncosh t  1
  
y  vdt  A  cosh t gA   A
gA  c 
A
ln cosh t gA , (9)

It holds from y  0   0 that c = 0.

Let the body be a sphere of radius r, density  t , and C  0.48 . Let the air density be
1.29 kg/m3. The dependence of the speed and distance on the radius is in Fig. 1 (iron sphere),
the dependence of the speed and distance on the sphere density is in Fig. 2 (r = 0.01 m).

Závislosť rýchlosti v od polomeru r Závislosť dráhy y od polomeru r

160 900 vákuum 6 cm 2 cm

vákuum
1 cm
140 v∞6cm
120 6 cm 600
100
v [ms ]
-1

80
y [m]
v∞2cm 2 cm 300
60
v∞1cm 1 cm y ∞1 cm
40
0
20
0 5 10 15 20
0
0 5 10 15 20 -300
t [s] t [s]

Fig. 1

Závislosť rýchlosti v od hustoty ρ t Závislosť dráhy y od hustoty ρt

140 900 vákuum Au Pb

vákuum Fe
120
100 600
v∞Au Au
v [ms ]

80
-1

y [m]

v∞Pb Pb 300
60
v∞Fe Fe y ∞Fe
40
20 0
0 5 10 15 20
0
0 5 10 15 20 -300
t [s] t [s]

Fig. 2