What should a free-body diagram look like for a skydiver who has opened his parachute and is now slowing down as he falls?
Responses
There is only an arrow down for gravity.
There is only an arrow down for gravity.
There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrow up is shorter than the arrow down.
There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrow up is shorter than the arrow down.
There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrows are the same length.
There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrows are the same length.
There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrow up is longer than the arrow down.
There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrow up is longer than the arrow down.
There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrow up is longer than the arrow down.
The correct response is: There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrows are the same length.
The correct answer is: "There is an arrow up for air resistance and an arrow down for gravity. The arrow up is shorter than the arrow down."
To understand why this is the correct answer, let's break it down:
A free-body diagram is a visual representation of the forces acting on an object. In this case, we are considering a skydiver who has opened their parachute and is slowing down as they fall.
Gravity is always acting vertically downward, so there should be an arrow pointing down to represent this force. This force is usually represented using the symbol "mg", where "m" is the mass of the skydiver and "g" is the acceleration due to gravity.
When the parachute is open, the skydiver experiences air resistance, or drag, which opposes their downward motion. The direction of this force is opposite to the direction of the motion, so there should be an arrow pointing up to represent this force. The length of the arrow for air resistance is shorter than the arrow for gravity because air resistance is not as strong as gravity in this case.
By having these two arrows on the free-body diagram, we account for the two main forces acting on the skydiver: gravity pulling them down and air resistance pushing them up. The skydiver's motion is determined by the balance between these two forces.