ok, guys... for accuracy's sake, I actually think Drich may be right.
Air resistance is typically considered proportional to air speed and cross section of the flying body in the direction proportional to the motion... the faster you go, the more air particles you bounce against; the larger you are, the more particles bounce against you (that's how parachutes work).
Air speed is also proportional to the acceleration that is exerted on the body.
Given enough time for the body to drop, it will reach a high enough speed so that the two constants of proportionality match. This results in zero acceleration from then on, or a constant velocity, usually called "terminal velocity".
So, in real world terms, a free-falling body actually feels an acceleration lower than one 'g', due to drag, eventually dropping to zero-g.
On top of this, the air density follows a maxwellian distribution, meaning it falls exponentially with altitude from its sea level value. This means that, the lower you are, the lower your terminal velocity will be, because you will have more air particles bouncing against your body. So, in some imperceptible way, you actually fall slower.
So, after all this sort of physics explanations on gravity and air drag... was this what Drich was talking about?
Air resistance is typically considered proportional to air speed and cross section of the flying body in the direction proportional to the motion... the faster you go, the more air particles you bounce against; the larger you are, the more particles bounce against you (that's how parachutes work).
Air speed is also proportional to the acceleration that is exerted on the body.
Given enough time for the body to drop, it will reach a high enough speed so that the two constants of proportionality match. This results in zero acceleration from then on, or a constant velocity, usually called "terminal velocity".
So, in real world terms, a free-falling body actually feels an acceleration lower than one 'g', due to drag, eventually dropping to zero-g.
On top of this, the air density follows a maxwellian distribution, meaning it falls exponentially with altitude from its sea level value. This means that, the lower you are, the lower your terminal velocity will be, because you will have more air particles bouncing against your body. So, in some imperceptible way, you actually fall slower.
So, after all this sort of physics explanations on gravity and air drag... was this what Drich was talking about?
