Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

Consider an object falling through air. How is the terminal velocity impacted wh

ID: 1405849 • Letter: C

Question

Consider an object falling through air. How is the terminal velocity impacted when certain physical properties are changed? Let us define the following: Place each of the following in the correct column in the chart.

P0: Density of the object   

Pair: Density of Air

m: Mass of the Block

A: effective cross-sectional area of the block

vT : terminal velocity of the block

: drag coefficient of the block

Terminal velocity occurs when the drag force increases to the point that the sum of all forces acting on the object is 0.

The drag force is given by the following formula: Fd=1/2 PairA v2

where A is the effective cross-sectional area of the object, is the drag coefficient, is the density of the air, and v is the speed of the object. The effective cross-section is the cross-sectional area of the object as viewed from the front of the object as it moves toward you through the fluid. In other words, it is the cross-section of the frontal-view silhouette.

vT Increases vT Remains the Same vT Decreases

Explanation / Answer

Terminal velocity is determined by V = sqrt(W/k) = sqrt(2mg/(rho Cd A))

vT Increases vT Remains the Same vT Decreases mass m of the block doubles mass and area of the block doubles Density of air bubble doubles density of the object doubles drag coefficient Cd of the block doubles density of the air and area A of the block doubles area of the block doubles