Paul Darren D.

Yap | Grade 12 Programming B SQL

Topic: “use algebra newton's 2nd law of motion , and newton's law of universal
Gravitation to show that, in the absence of air resistance, object close to the surface
of the earth fall of identical acceleration in dependent of their mass”

To demonstrate this, let’s start with Newton’s second law of motion, which states
that the force acting on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its
acceleration (F = ma). When an object falls near the surface of the Earth, it
experiences only one significant force: the gravitational force exerted by the Earth.
According to Newton’s law of universal gravitation, this force is given by F = G *
(m1 * m2) / r^2, where G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses
of the two objects (in this case, the object and the Earth), and r is the distance
between their centers.

Now, considering an object falling near the Earth’s surface, we can assume that its
mass (m) is much smaller than the Earth’s mass. Thus, we can treat the Earth as
being stationary and consider only the force acting on the object due to gravity.
This force, according to Newton’s law of universal gravitation, is proportional to
the object’s mass. Therefore, regardless of the object’s mass, the gravitational force
acting on it will be the same.

Now, applying Newton’s second law of motion (F = ma), we see that since the
force is constant and the mass cancels out, the acceleration (a) of the object is also
constant. This means that all objects near the Earth’s surface will fall with the same
acceleration, regardless of their mass. This is the principle of universality of free
fall, famously demonstrated by Galileo and later confirmed by experiments. Thus,
in the absence of air resistance, objects of different masses fall with identical
acceleration near the surface of the Earth.