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[Draco18s]

I dunno about you, but when I drop a hammer and a feather at the same time, the feather gently floats down, while the hammer breaks my toe.

Try doing it on the moon.

[Vattic]

ARMA?

From what I understand ARMA2 isn't a very realistic flight sim. Their helicopter game does a much better job of helicopters at least.

[thobal]

I dunno about you, but when I drop a hammer and a feather at the same time, the feather gently floats down, while the hammer breaks my toe.

Try doing it on the moon.

Try flying an airplane on the moon.

[10ebbor10]

The point I was trying to make was that Gravity causes an equal rate of arceleration for all things. There are forces that change this rate of arceleration, including friction and momentum.

For a more accurate version of that experiment, get a wooden and an iron ball of equal size, and drop them from the tower of Pizza.  They will land at the exact same moment. (Then get arrested by the Spanish inquisition for telling the world goes around the sun)

An airoplane would continue going forward, while the person stepping outside would fall down.

Both would enter a parabolic trajectory, but the planes descent is slowed by the lift of it's wings. The person, being quite a bit less
aerodynamic, and also much lighter would be slowed down by friction, and will, depending on the hight of the fall, land first.

The actual density of the plane doesn't impact it's flight trajectory much. It just means the thing has more momentum and is thus less impacted by other forces, for example friction and it's engines power. It doesn't have any effect on gravity, because while the energy required to move it does increase with mass, so does the gravitationall pull.As far as I can remember the calculation goes a bit like this. (Note, friction is ignored).
(m*vē/2)=m*g*h (m=mass, v=speed, g=gravitational force, h=height)
As you can see the mass cancels itself out, and therefore doesn't influence arceleration.

So far for physics 101;

[Draco18s]

I dunno about you, but when I drop a hammer and a feather at the same time, the feather gently floats down, while the hammer breaks my toe.

Try doing it on the moon.

Try flying an airplane on the moon.

Irrelevant to the point.  Which was that, "the plane would hit the ground first because it is heavier."
(And that said point is false for two reasons, one of which is that weight is irrelevant, see: hammer and feather on the moon)

[thobal]

I dunno about you, but when I drop a hammer and a feather at the same time, the feather gently floats down, while the hammer breaks my toe.

Try doing it on the moon.

Try flying an airplane on the moon.

Irrelevant to the point.  Which was that, "the plane would hit the ground first because it is heavier."
(And that said point is false for two reasons, one of which is that weight is irrelevant, see: hammer and feather on the moon)

Whoever said anything about the plane being heavier but people who weren't paying attention? This was about WWII pilots, none of whom ever did battle in an arena with no atmosphere. Further more, the stated reasons for the pilot not carrying on a short distance from his aircraft were "density" and "aerodynamic forces." You could do the hammer and helium balloon experiement on the moon, but that doesnt mean it would work on Earth.

For a more accurate version of that experiment, get a wooden and an iron ball of equal size, and drop them from the tower of Pizza.  They will land at the exact same moment.

Try that on a really windy day. The weight is irrelephant. The density isnt. Because this isnt a vacuum. If one object masses a hundred times more than the other and they have the same cross section, one of them is going to fall a hell of a lot faster. The forces acting on both maybe the same, but the air will give way to the denser object much more readily.

[10ebbor10]

But density has nothing to do with it. What has some importance though is the mass. But not in the context of gravitational arceleration (which doesn't care about mass), but in the context of friction.

Let's asume that both the pilot and the plane have the same density. According to your theory, they would have to fall just as fast. Which is not what would happen. The plane, due to the fact that it's more aerodynamic, would fall faster.

If the plane and human had the same form, but different densities, they would fall just as fast.(See Galileo's experiment, described in a previous post).

[thobal]

If the plane and human had the same form, but different densities, they would fall just as fast.(See Galileo's experiment, described in a previous post).

You're going to stand there and tell me that an inflatable decoy airplane is going to fall as fast as the real thing if dropped from an equal height above the earth, reaching the ground at approximately the same time?

[Xinvoker]

If the plane and human had the same form, but different densities, they would fall just as fast.(See Galileo's experiment, described in a previous post).

You're going to stand there and tell me that an inflatable decoy airplane is going to fall as fast as the real thing if dropped from an equal height above the earth, reaching the ground at approximately the same time?

Yep, that's exactly true. But the atmosphere has to be calm, otherwise the inflatable "aircraft" might be blown away (or upwards) by the wind.

[Rose]

If the plane and human had the same form, but different densities, they would fall just as fast.(See Galileo's experiment, described in a previous post).

You're going to stand there and tell me that an inflatable decoy airplane is going to fall as fast as the real thing if dropped from an equal height above the earth, reaching the ground at approximately the same time?

Yep, that's exactly true. But the atmosphere has to be calm, otherwise the inflatable "aircraft" might be blown away (or upwards) by the wind.

Nope, the wings on the decoy will provide more lift relative to the weight of the plane.

[Xinvoker]

If the plane and human had the same form, but different densities, they would fall just as fast.(See Galileo's experiment, described in a previous post).

You're going to stand there and tell me that an inflatable decoy airplane is going to fall as fast as the real thing if dropped from an equal height above the earth, reaching the ground at approximately the same time?

Yep, that's exactly true. But the atmosphere has to be calm, otherwise the inflatable "aircraft" might be blown away (or upwards) by the wind.

Nope, the wings on the decoy will provide more lift relative to the weight of the plane.

Sure. Except it doesn't matter. The lift will be the same, in absulute terms.

Let's ditch the inflatable thing and say they are both made of metal, but one is solid, and the other is a hollow shell.
The wings will have the same shape and same air resistance, therefore they will provide the same lift, and both planes will fall at the same speed.

[thobal]

If the plane and human had the same form, but different densities, they would fall just as fast.(See Galileo's experiment, described in a previous post).

You're going to stand there and tell me that an inflatable decoy airplane is going to fall as fast as the real thing if dropped from an equal height above the earth, reaching the ground at approximately the same time?

Yep, that's exactly true. But the atmosphere has to be calm, otherwise the inflatable "aircraft" might be blown away (or upwards) by the wind.

Nope, the wings on the decoy will provide more lift relative to the weight of the plane.

Sure. Except it doesn't matter. The lift will be the same, in absulute terms.

Let's ditch the inflatable thing and say they are both made of metal, but one is solid, and the other is a hollow shell.
The wings will have the same shape and same air resistance, therefore they will provide the same lift, and both planes will fall at the same speed.

No, lets go back to spheres for a minute. Lets say I get a metal one and a latex one, both about 1m radius. And this is magic latex that wont deform. They are both hollow and I fill them both with helium. They both hit the ground at the same time?

[Rose]

Nope, while the lift is the same, the doward force is differfent. Try making a paper airplane, and make a copy of it in aluminum foil, and tell me the results.

[Xinvoker]

No, lets go back to spheres for a minute. Lets say I get a metal one and a latex one, both about 1m radius. And this is magic latex that wont deform. They are both hollow and I fill them both with helium. They both hit the ground at the same time?

lol, the 2nd one will never hit the floor, so it has no place in a freefalling experiment.

Just read this:
http://www.ehow.com/list_5761172_ball-drop-science-projects.html

[thobal]

No, lets go back to spheres for a minute. Lets say I get a metal one and a latex one, both about 1m radius. And this is magic latex that wont deform. They are both hollow and I fill them both with helium. They both hit the ground at the same time?

lol, the 2nd one will never hit the floor, so it has no place in a freefalling experiment.

Just read this:
http://www.ehow.com/list_5761172_ball-drop-science-projects.html

So density does matter then?

I think we should quit thread-jacking this topic now.