Question for you physisists
 

I was wondering, as you do, if an object were to fall through an endless vacuum, with normal gravity, would it reach terminal velocity? Seeing that there will be no upwards force due to the air, would it just keep on accelerating?

Sander

Yeah, it would just keep accelerating :D
There's no matter in the vacuum other than the object itself, so there's no friction. Knowing that terminal velocity is caused by the force of friction "balancing" the force of gravity, there can be no terminal velocity in a vacuum. Thus, the only force acting on it is gravity...so it will keep accelerating.

Answer:

1) It would never achieve terminal velocity, since without any form of resistance "Terminal Velocity" would be infinite. Therefore it would simply continue to accelerate at 10mS2. Personally I don't care what happens to it at c or c2 'co even if it couldn't exceed c, or did transmute into energy at c2, by that time it'd be a feckin' long way away!

2) It's spelled PhysiCist!

3) What do you mean by "terminal Velocity"? For example, TV for a Skydiver flying belly to earth (assuming normal UK Summer temperatures and pressures, and below 19,000ft above MSL) is about 200kmh, rising towards 320kmh dependent on body position. other things have a higher or lower TV.

Mike.

Termianl Velocity is such an awesome term. Even for those who think it's just a movie.

This would also be a good thread for my proposed TILTED KNOWLEDGE forum.

WINK WINK