Does a feather really fall as fast as a bowling ball? Brian Cox takes a look – update

You may remember your science teacher telling you that all objects fall at the same velocity, regardless of mass. There is something counter-intuitive about this, but in practice, two rocks of different masses do fall at the same speed. What about a bowling ball & a feather? Obviously, the feather is slowed by air resistance. But what would happen if there was no air resistance?

Professor Brian Cox¹ took a look:



Brian Cox did it the easy way. In 1971, Commander David Scott went all the way to the Moon aboard Apollo 15 & did essentially the same thing:^2,3


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¹ Wikipedia: “Brian Cox (physicist)”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)

² NASA: “Apollo 15 Hammer-Feather Drop”, https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_15_feather_drop.html

³ Wikipedia: Apollo 15, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_15

Update 30 May 2018: Apollo 15 material added. / force mass weight speed velocity acceleration due to gravity 10 9.8 metres meters per second per second squared force NASA vector scalar /