A student drops a feather and a bowling ball from equal heights in a vacuum. The objects land at the same time. Can you describe what that graph would look like?
In a vacuum, where there is no air resistance, both the feather and the bowling ball will experience the same acceleration due to gravity. So, their motion can be described using the equations of motion under constant acceleration.
The graph of the position (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) for both objects would appear similar. Initially, both objects would be at the same height, and their positions would be zero at time zero. As time progresses, both objects would start falling downwards due to gravity. The positions of the feather and the bowling ball would decrease with time, representing their downward movement.
Since both objects are dropped from the same height and experience the same acceleration, their positions would change at the same rate. Therefore, the graph lines for the feather and the bowling ball would have the same slope or steepness. This implies that the positions of both objects decrease linearly with time.
The graph would be a straight line with a negative slope, representing the constant downward acceleration and the dropping motion of both objects. The line for the bowling ball may appear steeper due to its larger mass compared to the feather, but the gradient of both lines would be the same.
In summary, the graph would be a straight line with a negative slope, indicating a linear decrease in position with respect to time for both the feather and the bowling ball.