Gravitational acceleration
If an object is dropped, it will accelerate towards the ground.
This is because of gravity. The force of gravity is known as the weight of the object.
Earth’s acceleration due to gravity
Section titled “Earth’s acceleration due to gravity”When an object is dropped in Earth’s gravitational field, it will accelerate
towards the ground at about
That’s known as the acceleration due to gravity. We write it with a
Resistive forces
Section titled “Resistive forces”In the real world, the objects falling to the ground won’t always accelerate
at
Generally, this is due to air resistance - the faster the object falls, the more air resistance it experiences, and the more it decelerates.
It can also be another form of drag - for example, a ball falling through water will experience drag from the water, which will decelerate it.
If these resistive forces eventually become equal to the force of gravity, the object will stop accelerating as it will be at terminal velocity.