Free-falling motions

• Free fall


  The motion of an object when it is falling under the sole influence of gravity
• Free fall


  • The downward movement of objects when simply dropped
  • Applies to objects that are thrown upward, provided that only the force of gravity acts on them
  • Objects thrown upward or downward are both considered to be in free fall motion
• Motion of falling objects

  1. Object initially at rest, when dropped, gains velocity

  2. Gain in velocity is because of acceleration due to gravity

  3. Acceleration due to gravity (g) has an approximate magnitude of 9.80 m/s^2 and its direction is downward or towards the center of the earth
• Uniformly accelerated motion formulas


  Used to describe the motion of a free falling object
• All objects that go upwards is considered positive (+)
• All objects that go to the direction of the of the force of gravity downward is negative (-)
• Units

  • Time - s
  • Distance - m
  • Final velocity - m/s