• VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    12
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    He’s close, but not quite there. Air resistance slows things, and in a vacuum all things will fall at the same rate, yes. But, weight has zero impact on the rate an object falls through the atmosphere. Air resistance affects things based on their shape and permeability. He’s still saying that a heavier object will fall faster in atmosphere, all other things being equal, which is false.

    He clearly knows air resistance is a thing, he just doesn’t understand how it works.

    • MrConfusion@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      31
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Hi. Physicist here. You are absolutely wrong. The mass of an object does not affect the magnitude of force of air resistance which acts upon a falling object. But the acceleration that object will have is given by Newton’s second law as Force divided by mass. So a heavy and a light ball with the same shape will experience the same air resistance, but the heavy ball will “care less” and thus fall faster.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        That’s because there’s more than just weight that’s different there

        Don’t leave dry sarcasm on the Internet without the requisite sarcasm mark, lol, I ain’t gonna bitch out and add it now tho

    • andmonad@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      I don’t think he’s talking about air resistance but about density, which is pretty close to the notion of weight and also affect fall speed. He probably came to this conclusion by looking at how things fall (or not) through water.