A backpack full of books and an empty backpack are dropped from the same height. If there is no air resistance, which bag will hit the ground first?
a
This cannot be determined because the dimensions of the bags are needed.
b
They will both hit the ground at the same time.
c
The empty bag will hit the ground first.
d
The full bag will hit the ground first.
b) They will both hit the ground at the same time, as they have the same weight and will experience the same acceleration due to gravity.
b
They will both hit the ground at the same time.
The correct answer is b) They will both hit the ground at the same time.
This conclusion is based on Galileo's law of falling bodies, which states that in the absence of air resistance, all objects will fall towards the Earth with the same acceleration regardless of their mass. It means that the weight or the amount of books in the backpack does not affect how quickly each backpack falls.
To understand why they fall at the same rate, it helps to consider a thought experiment involving an object with no resistance. When the backpacks are dropped, they start from rest and experience only the force of gravity acting upon them. According to Galileo's law, all objects close to the Earth's surface will accelerate due to gravity at a rate of 9.8 meters per second squared (m/s^2). This means that every second, the speed of the falling object will increase by 9.8 m/s.
Since the backpacks are dropped from the same height and experience the same acceleration, they will both gain the same amount of speed per second and consequently hit the ground at the same time.
It's worth noting that if the question mentioned air resistance, the result would be different, as the presence of air resistance would affect the motion of the objects and cause them to fall at different rates.