The weight of a falling object the moment it hits the ground.

Question

How do I measure the weight of a falling object the moment it hits the ground? For example, a 15kg ball is suspended 100 meters in the air and then dropped.

Answer 1

One meaning of the word "weight of an object" is the gravitation force acting on it.

But here you mean something different -- the total force acting on it,

including the reaction of the ground.

The key thing is that the object does not hit the ground in one moment.

There is a period of time during which the object depresses the ground,

which then recovers somewhat pushing the object back.

This whole process has a non-zero duration, during which time the forces keep changing.

If the object did stop in an instant of duration 0, then the force would be infinite.

Experimentally you could determine an average force acting on the object if you could measure

the depth of the depression in the ground, AND the time it took to form the depression.