Air Resistance and Terminal Velocity

How does air resistance affect the motion of a skydiver? What is terminal velocity and why do objects reach a terminal velocity? And how does mass affect the falling motion of an object? Find out the answers to these questions and more as The Physics Classroom combines simulations, diagrams, graphs, numerical presentations, and sound logic to clarify difficulty topics associated with falling motion.

You can find more information that supports this video on our website.

Student Action Plan includes:

Concept Builder: Air Resistance and Skydiving

Physics Interactives: Skydiving Simulation

Minds On Physics the App - Part 2, Missions NL11:

Multimedia Physics Studios: Elephant and Feather - with Air Resistance

Tutorial on Newton's Laws:

Other Videos on Newton's Laws topics can be found at ...

And finally, the Home Page of our complete Physics Video Tutorial is located at ...

[Valeria-uzlb]

I am so glad this channel exists <3

[parithimathi]

Great insights and application-oriented analysis. Thanks sir🙏

[shivi]

Thank you so much! this video helped me understand the concepts very clearly. i really appreciate it!

[karisc.anoruo]

This helped with my pre-lab for Physics

[rmazam]

Thanks for your videos. I have a doubt. Even after reaching the terminal velocity, when the forces get balanced, the moving object will still collide with more and more molecules during the travel. Won't these collisions lead to unbalanced force and accelerate the object?

Before reaching terminal velocity, it sounds like the shape of the object is really the only relevant variable. Thus, why do people say that a heavier skier will ski faster than a lighter skier when it is likely that the area of the heavier skier's body will be greater than the smaller lighter skier.