Thursday, October 17, 2013

Acceleration of rain

When it was raining I wondered if all the raindrops are falling with the same velocity, assuming they fell from the same point. They wouldn't all hit the ground at the same time unless they all fell at the same time, if there velocities were uniform. But the raindrops don't fall at the same velocity. Air resistance comes into play, where the size and surface area of the raindrop matters and would affect the dropping speed. This relates to the experiment in class where the feather and penny were placed in a tube that was extracted of air. Both the penny and feather were dropped from the same point and and reached the same point when dropped. They traveled with the same velocity. The raindrops would fall at the same velocities as well, but air resistance acts on the weight and size of each raindrop. The bigger and heavier the raindrop, the more air resistance. So raindrops with different masses and sizes fall with different velocities.

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