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The bowling ball isn’t falling to the earth faster. The higher perceived acceleration is due to the earth falling toward the bowling ball.
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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Bowling ball. Because wind resistance is a thing and the feather has higher surface area creating more drag, and there’s no such thing as a perfect vacuum.
A feather has smaller cross-section area than a bowling ball. But drag acceleration is proportional to the cross-section area divided by the mass (and this quantity is indeed smaller for the bowling ball).
Anyway the hypothetical scenario in this meme is a perfect vacuum. Check my other comments to see why it still works.
Depends on the feather and the bowling ball. Even relatively small (by volume) feathers might outdo a bowling ball thanks to the numerous fine shapes they have.
I meant cross-section area, not surface area. Sorry. Edited my comment above.
An average bowling ball is 8.5 inches in diameter, giving it a cross sectional surface area of roughly 60 sq in. Restricting ourselves to feathers made by non-human animals, the longest feather measured was on a Yokohama chicken at 34 feet / 400+ inches. I can't find the width of the feather, but it's still likely it outdoes an average bowling ball.
That is one very impressive feather.
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