Mission NL11: Air Resistance

Mission NL11 pertains to the concept of air resistance and the factors that affect the amount of air resistance experienced by an object. The mission consists of 35 questions organized into 9 Question Groups. You must answer one question from each Question Group to complete the mission. The learning outcomes for this mission are ...
 

Learning Outcomes

• The student should be able to identify the factors effecting the amount of air resistance and describe the effect of air resistance upon a falling object.
• The student should be able to define terminal velocity, identify the causes of terminal velocity, and describe the factors effecting the magnitude of the terminal velocity.

 

Launch Mission NL11

 

Getting Help

If you are not familiar with this topic, then you should first learn about the topic using our written Tutorial or our Video Tutorial:

The Physics Classroom, Newton's Laws Unit, Lesson 3, Part e

• How does mass effect the rate of fall of an object falling under the influence of air resistance?
• What variables effect the amount of air resistance experienced by an object?
• How does one calculate the acceleration of an object if the magnitudes of the individual forces are known?
• How does increasing speeds effect the force of air resistance?
• How does increasing speeds effect the rate of acceleration of a falling object?
• Why would a falling elephant fall faster than a feather?
• What is meant by terminal velocity?
• Why does an object eventually reach terminal velocity?
• What is the net force on an object which has reached terminal velocity?
• What would the free-body diagram for an object which has reached terminal velocity look like?

 

Video Tutorials:

Air Resistance, Terminal Velocity, and Skydiving

  

 

 

Question-Specific Help

Each Question Group has its own Help page with information specific to the question. You can access the Help page from within the mission by tapping on the Help Me! icon (textbook). For your convenience, links to those pages are provided below: