Why does a feather fall at the same rate?
Isabella Bartlett
Updated on January 17, 2026
Because there is no longer any air, there is no more opposing force – this makes the feather and the bowling ball fall to the ground at exactly the same time (see our video below for a demonstration).
Why does feather fall at the same speed?
Air resistance causes the feather to fall more slowly. If a feather and a brick were dropped together in a vacuum—that is, an area from which all air has been removed—they would fall at the same rate, and hit the ground at the same time.Why did the hammer and feather fall at the same rate?
Because they were essentially in a vacuum, there was no air resistance and the feather fell at the same rate as the hammer, as Galileo had concluded hundreds of years before - all objects released together fall at the same rate regardless of mass.Does a feather fall at the same rate?
Spoiler: the answer is that they will all fall at the exact same rate. Though some objects, like feathers, seem to fall slower because of air resistance. In order to see the true nature of gravity effecting the feathers, you need to remove all the air in the room.Why things fall at the same rate?
This force is caused by air resistance. The less massive the object is, the more the force of air resistance slows the object down as it falls. If two objects were dropped on the moon, where there is no air, they would fall at the same rate no matter how much they differ in mass.Brian Cox visits the world's biggest vacuum | Human Universe - BBC
Why do 2 objects of different masses fall at the same time?
Consequently, the acceleration is a=Fm=GMR2, which is independent of the mass of the object. Hence any two objects that are subject only to the force of gravity will fall with the same acceleration and hence they will hit the ground at the same time.Why does a bowling ball and feather fall at the same rate in a vacuum?
Because there is no longer any air, there is no more opposing force – this makes the feather and the bowling ball fall to the ground at exactly the same time (see our video below for a demonstration).Will a penny and a feather fall at the same rate?
You might think this would cause the coin to fall faster. But because of the coin's greater mass, it's also much harder to accelerate the coin than the feather—50 times harder, in fact! The two effects exactly cancel out, and the two objects therefore fall with the same acceleration.Why does feather fall slower?
Galileo discovered that objects that are more dense, or have more mass, fall at a faster rate than less dense objects, due to this air resistance. A feather and brick dropped together. Air resistance causes the feather to fall more slowly.Do heavier objects fall faster without air resistance?
No, heavier objects fall as fast (or slow) as lighter objects, if we ignore the air friction. The air friction can make a difference, but in a rather complicated way. The gravitational acceleration for all objects is the same.Do heavier objects fall faster?
Acceleration of Falling ObjectsHeavier things have a greater gravitational force AND heavier things have a lower acceleration. It turns out that these two effects exactly cancel to make falling objects have the same acceleration regardless of mass.