FALL! The Perfect Time for Physics Experiments?

11/4/2022

It's Fall so why not measure how things fall? Physics students in Jay Huston's class were dropping different numbers of coffee filters from different heights to investigate terminal velocity. Because the "Frontal Area" (the part of the coffee filter facing down as it falls) is the same no matter how many are stacked, students were only changing the masses when they nested multiple filters together.

What they found experimentally, was that if you square the number of meters dropped (ex: 3m) and use that number of filters nested into one mass (ex: 9 filters), the time to fall is the same. So, by keeping the "Frontal Area" the same and only changing mass, terminal velocity will cause predictable falling times.

Confused? Below is a brief definition of what Terminal Velocity is.
**No VHS movies were harmed in the experiments this week.

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