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Home / Series / Veritasium / Aired Order / Season 2011 / Episode 17

Which Hits The Ground First?

A basketball and a 5kg medicine ball are dropped simultaneously. Which one hits the ground first? It seems obvious that the heavy one should accelerate at a greater rate and therefore land first because the force pulling it down is greater. But this is forgetting inertia - the tendency of mass to resist changes in motion. Therefore, although the force on the medicine ball is greater, it takes this larger force to accelerate the ball at the same rate as the basketball.

English
  • Originally Aired March 1, 2011
  • Runtime 10 minutes
  • Network YouTube
  • Created September 18, 2017 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified September 18, 2017 by
    Administrator admin