Free fall word problem

Question

As a freely falling object speeds up, what is happening to its acceleration—does it increase, decrease, or stay the same? (a) Ignore air resistance. (b) Consider air resistance.

Answer 1

If you ignore air resistance, falling objects (on earth) feel the force of gravity and so are subject to the constant acceleration due to gravity. Their acceleration remains constant at 9.8 m/s².

If you consider air resistance, an object begins falling with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s² but as the object begins to travel faster and faster it is subject to more and more air resistance until eventually gets to the point where it reaches "terminal velocity" meaning that the force of the air resistance equals the force due to gravity. Terminal velocity means that its velocity remains constant so it also means that its net acceleration is zero. So the object's overall acceleration, beginning at 9.8 m/s² gets smaller and smaller until it reaches zero.