Explanation:
Does a ball drop faster on Earth, Jupiter, or Uranus?
The featured animation shows a ball dropping from one kilometer high toward the surfaces
of
famous solar system bodies, assuming no
air resistance.
The force of
gravity depends on the mass of the
attracting object,
with higher masses pulling down with
greater forces.
But gravitational force also depends on distance from the
center of gravity,
with shorter distances causing the ball to drop faster.
Combining both mass and distance, it might be surprising to see that
Uranus pulls the ball down slightly slower than
Earth,
despite containing over 14 times more mass.
This happens because
Uranus has a much lower density,
which puts its cloud tops further away from its
center
of mass.
Although the
falling ball always speeds up,
if you were on the ball you would not feel this acceleration because you would be
in
free-fall.
Of the three planets mentioned,
the video
demonstrates a ball drops even faster on
Jupiter than either Earth and Uranus.
