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Catalyst: Do heavier things fall faster?

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Catalyst: Do heavier things fall faster?

SUBJECTS:  Science

YEARS:  7–8, 9–10


Will a medicine ball or a basketball hit the ground first when dropped at the same time from the same height?

In this clip, Catalyst's Dr Derek Muller investigates what influences the speed at which objects fall.

Derek challenges some people in a market to make a prediction and explain their thinking, before he finally conducts the experiment and delivers the scientific explanation.


Things to think about

  1. 1.If a 5-kg medicine ball and a basketball were dropped at the same time from the same height, which do you think would hit the ground first? Why? An object moves because there are forces acting upon it. What force causes things to fall to the ground? Do you know any other forces that may influence the speed objects move at?
  2. 2.Listen as Derek quizzes the public about which ball will hit the ground first. Which ball do most people think will hit first? Watch as the balls are dropped. What happens? What force or forces does Derek say influence the speed they fall at? The experiment is compared to the movement of what other object?
  3. 3.Did the experiment help you to understand how forces affect the movement of things? Why did Derek choose to conduct his experiment with the two balls? Could he have used something else? Explain or draw a diagram to show how objects fall and how forces acting on them influence their movement.
  4. 4.Conduct your own experiment to investigate the rate at which objects fall. Test your friends and family by asking them to predict what will happen. Can they explain what they see? Try the experiment with different objects such as a tennis ball and an apple or a marble and a grape. Work out a way to release them all at the same time.



Date of broadcast: 22 Sep 2011


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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