WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Falling Body with Zero, Linear, or Quadratic Air Resistance

​
drop height
y
0
(m)
5.
linear terminal velocity
v
b
(m/s)
5.
quadratic terminal velocity
v
c
(m/s)
5.
time (s)
1.
This Demonstration shows plots of the one-dimensional downward trajectory of a falling body as a function of time. The cases considered are: no air resistance (blue), linear resistance (red), and quadratic resistance (purple). The drop height
y
(vertical axis) is in meters and the horizontal axis is time
t
in seconds. The acceleration due to gravity
g
is set to
9.8m/
2
s
. You can vary the drop height
y
0
, the terminal velocity for linear air resistance
v
b
, the terminal velocity for quadratic air resistance
v
c
, and the time
t
, in order to see where the object is at a certain time.