Acceleration Due to Gravity

Gravity is an invisible force that pulls objects toward Earth, causing them to fall when dropped.

As objects fall, gravity causes them to speed up. This increase in speed is called acceleration due to gravity.

On Earth, acceleration due to gravity is approximately 9.8 meters per second squared.

For example, when you drop an object, its speed increases by 9.8 meters per second every second. After 1 second, it moves at 9.8 meters per second. After 2 seconds, its speed reaches 19.6 meters per second, and so on.

Now, imagine dropping a bowling ball and a basketball from the same height. Which one reaches the ground first? While air resistance affects both, the effect is minimal, and they reach the ground almost at the same time. This happens because gravity accelerates all objects equally, but air resistance can cause small differences depending on an object’s shape, size, and mass.

For instance, a feather drifts down slowly because its large surface area leads to much more air resistance compared to a rock, which falls much faster.