Does a free falling body has uniform acceleration under gravity?
A body falling freely under the influence of gravitational force experiences accelerated motion. If the medium in which the body is moving, is a viscous material medium, then it exerts a viscous force on the body proportional to its velocity, in the opposite direction of motion.
Thus the body experiences two opposite forces:
- one gravity, downward, and
- the other, viscous force due to drag, upward. (This force increases in magnitude as long as the velocity of the object increases as it is directly proportional to the velocity.)
Now what happens is that, at an instant, the viscous drag force reaches the value of force due to gravity, at that instant, the net force on the body is ZERO, there is no further acceleration of the body and body reaches its maximum possible velocity in that medium, called as terminal velocity.
Before reaching terminal velocity, the body is under non uniform motion, as its velocity increases continuously, but, after reaching the terminal velocity, the body is under uniform motion.
A body falling freely under the influence of gravitational force experiences accelerated motion. If the medium in which the body is moving, is a viscous material medium, then it exerts a viscous force on the body proportional to its velocity, in the opposite direction of motion.
Thus the body experiences two opposite forces:
- one gravity, downward, and
- the other, viscous force due to drag, upward. (This force increases in magnitude as long as the velocity of the object increases as it is directly proportional to the velocity.)
Now what happens is that, at an instant, the viscous drag force reaches the value of force due to gravity, at that instant, the net force on the body is ZERO, there is no further acceleration of the body and body reaches its maximum possible velocity in that medium, called as terminal velocity.
Before reaching terminal velocity, the body is under non uniform motion, as its velocity increases continuously, but, after reaching the terminal velocity, the body is under uniform motion.
