Non-Free-Fall Motion and Newton's Second Law of Motion
An object is in free fall when gravity is the ONLY force acting on it. Any object which is moving through the atmosphere not only has the force due to gravity acting on it, but it also has wind resistance (another force) acting on it. Thus, any time an object moves through the atmosphere, it is NOT really in free fall, and it is NOT accelerating at g, or 9.8 meters/second/second.
Let's walk through an example of non-free-fall motion. |