Why do flat objects land softly?

Question

I noticed that if you drop a flat surface, parallelly from a relatively low height, onto another, the impact is almost cushioned. What is happening here? Is this to do with the air, especially near the centre, not being able to escape, thus applying a repulsive pressure?

Answer 1

It's due to the drag force slowing down the falling object. The drag force depends on the area that the air presses against, the drag coefficient of the object, the air density, and the velocity of the falling object.

When you have a flat surface, the area of the object is relatively greater than a circular object so that increases the drag force.

When you drop it from a low height, the velocity will be relatively small. The acceleration due to gravity will have less time to act so the velocity will be smaller.

If you have both a flat surface and a low velocity, the resultant force when the object lands will be small, which is what you're seeing.