Practise explaining air resistance, changing acceleration and terminal velocity for falling objects using balanced and unbalanced forces in Cambridge IGCSE Physics problems.
A ball of mass 130 g is launched from the ground at an initial velocity of 14 m/s vertically upwards. It decelerates until it is at rest momentarily at a height h above the ground.
The ball is dropped from the top of a tall building.
Describe and explain the motion of the ball as it falls. Consider the effect of air resistance in your answer.
any three from:
- (ball) accelerates
- (accelerates) at 9.8 m/s2 initially OR (accelerates) due to force of gravity
- air resistance / resistive force increases (with speed / velocity)
- resultant force (downwards) decreases
- acceleration decreases
- terminal velocity is reached when acceleration is zero OR terminal velocity is reached when resultant force is zero